Australia Border Force resources dwindling as Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson takes aim

The boats and aircraft tasked with keeping watch over Australia’s borders keep breaking down and have been plagued with crew shortages, internal Australian Border Force documents reveal.

The issues are being blamed for a double-digit drop in patrols over recent years, despite authorities warning of increased threats from both people smuggling and illegal foreign fishing.

People smuggling remains an “extant threat” to Australia, particularly boats coming from Indonesia, while illegal fishing has reached an 18-year high, briefings prepared for Operation Sovereign Borders Commander Brett Sonter ahead of Senate estimates in May reveal.

The briefings were released to The Nightly under freedom of information laws.

By the end of March, Border Force’s 14 vessels had done 1563 patrol days for the financial year, which was forecast to lift to 2200 by the end of June.

If the forecast lift was achieved, the number of maritime patrols would be on par with the previous year — but a drop of about 17 per cent from pre-pandemic levels.

The briefing puts the fall in patrol days down to the oldest boat in the fleet, ABFC Cape St George, being out for five-yearly maintenance, along with “significant emergent defects amongst the ABF Fleet units and crewing deficiencies”.

However, it also reveals the ABF employs 554 maritime crew — the same as in 2021, which was the highest for seven years.

Reports earlier in the year highlighted significant maintenance issues with the Cape class patrol boats, including fires on board and breakdowns in communications equipment and system alarms.

The documents also reveal that by the end of March the fleet of 10 Dash-8 planes had racked up flying hours amounting to about 73 per cent of the previous year, putting it roughly on track to match the patrol levels.

But the two patrol helicopters had only completed about half the flying hours of the previous 12 months, meaning they were trending for a fall in hours year on year.

“There has been a downward trend in annual aviation flying hours across the past three years attributable to aircrew shortfalls due to the ongoing global shortage of pilots, and reduced aircraft availability due to increased unscheduled maintenance,” the briefing says.

Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said it was little wonder three boats had reached the Australian mainland this year.

“Aerial surveillance and maritime patrol days have crashed on the Albanese Government’s watch and that has meant boats have slipped through,” he told The Nightly.

“Fixing this should be Tony Burke’s number one priority — but there’s no evidence any action has been taken to introduce new capabilities to plug the gaps, like drones. If they don’t act soon it will only get worse”

While the ABF owns its fleet of boats, it leases the planes and helicopters in arrangements that include the crews.

But the estimates briefing reveals discontent from officials, saying Border Force and the Home Affairs Department were “managing contract performance issues” and pursuing new “fit-for-purpose contracts” that don’t rely on short-term or just-in-time funding.

It suggests Rear Admiral Sonter tell senators that Operation Sovereign Borders was a “mature and scalable model” that would ramp up and down in response to threats, drawing in Defence resources if needed.

“As commander of MBC and OSB, I regularly review and adjust our operational posture to respond to maritime people smuggling ventures targeting Australia, including those attempting to use common IUU (illegal unreported and unregulated) fishing corridors to reach Australia,” the briefing to him says.

So far this year, ABF has picked up one boat with three Vietnamese men who were returned to Vietnam, a second carrying 39 people and a third with 10 people, all of whom were sent to Nauru.

The ABF sent extra resources into WA’s North West in February, including sending a commander to Broome, to step up patrols and engagement with local communities who are a vital source of intelligence.