PM: I´ve spoken this morning to the Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, who has been in our operations centre and been briefed on the boat sinking between Indonesia and Australia.
I´ve also spoken this morning to the Acting Prime Minister, Wayne Swan. At this stage details are sketchy, but what is apparent is that there has been a large loss of life at sea.
This is a very distressing and tragic incident. We don´t know the full details yet, but clearly we have lost a number of lives in a very dangerous journey from Indonesia to Australia.
The Minster for Home Affairs will make a comprehensive statement on the details of what has happened here in the morning Australian time. The Acting Prime Minister will take responsibility for any national security arrangements that need to be made in Australia.
I, of course, will keep in contact with both of them by telephone. I have had a brief conversation with President Yudhoyono about this matter.
Our Indonesian and Australian personnel work well on search and rescue operations and all of our normal cooperative arrangements will be brought to bear in this case. J
OURNALIST: What did President Yudhoyono say to you about it and what was the nature of that conversation?
PM: President Yudhoyono was, of course, distressed about the news. He assured me that we would work together - Indonesia and Australia - on the rescue efforts. We have good understandings between us about the best way of working together with these kind of incidents.
JOURNALIST: Have the Indonesians reached the boat yet?
PM: Look, I´m not in a position to give you the precise details of this incident. When I spoke to Minister Clare he´d received a briefing at the operational centre, but was going to take further time to make sure all of the details were clear before he makes a comprehensive public statement.
JOURNALIST: Do you think this should be the catalyst for some sort of resolution of this policy issue in Australia?
PM: I don't, at this stage, want to talk about policy or other questions. Our focus now is on the search and rescue effort. Thank you very much.