Karen Andrews says Scott Morrison asked her to issue statement on election day boat arrival

Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews says Scott Morrison asked her to release information about the arrival of an asylum seeker boat on election day, but denies she pressured border authorities to issue a statement. On 21 May, the day of the federal election, the Operation Sovereign Borders Commander issued a statement announcing an unauthorised vessel from Sri Lanka had been intercepted on its way to Australia. Text messages by the Liberal Party, telling Australians to vote Liberal to “keep our borders secure”. Following his election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese directed the Home Affairs department the results of which were released on Friday. Its report found the boat statement was issued after Ms Andrews repeatedly urged officials to make the information public, saying that “the prime minister wants a statement”. But Ms Andrews, who is now the Opposition’s spokeswoman for home affairs, said there was “absolutely no pressure” on officials to get the details out and rejected suggestions there was a breach of government caretaker provisions, which come into force when an election is called. “There was no breach of caretaker provisions,” Ms Andrews told the Nine Network on Saturday. “I was asked by the (then) prime minister (Scott Morrison) to issue the statement and that is exactly what I did.” Ms Andrews said she asked for the statement to be put out “in a very situational awareness type of report.” “It just needed to be put out there so that it was clear that there had been a vessel that had been intercepted,” she said. “I don’t recall that there has ever been a boat that has been intercepted on election day so we weren’t in circumstances that were every day of the week, thankfully.”

The department was given 15 minutes to draft and publish a statement by Ms Andrews’ office, according to the report, with members of her team telling bureaucrats some in their camp were “furious” that it hadn’t been released in that time frame.

The report, compiled by Home Affairs department secretary Mike Pezzullo, found there “was pressure placed on officials to release a public statement regarding the interception … prior to the conclusion of the operational activity.” “Under no circumstances is the department to drop the story to selected journalists,” department secretary Michael Pezzullo said in a directive on 21 May. “The release once cleared is to be posted to our news and media site – no more and no less.” Ms Andrews said she just wanted a statement that “stuck to the facts” and it was a “lawful request”. The former coalition government also wanted the information about the boat intercept given to “selected journalists”, which Mr Pezzullo at the time rejected, saying this should not happen “under no circumstances”.

But the information had already been leaked to some journalists, with one reporter asking Mr Morrison about it during a press conference before it was made public.

After the statement was published on the Australian Border Force website, officials refused requests to “amplify” the news by putting it on social media or sending it straight to journalists, the report found. Ms Andrews said she did not have any knowledge about the texts that were later sent out by the Liberal Party to voters. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on Friday said the episode was “disgraceful, shameful and characteristic of a national government which frequently pursued political interests above the national interest”. “Their actions undermined the integrity of this complex operation, making it more difficult and dangerous,” she said in a statement.

SBS News has contacted Mr Morrison’s office for comment.