Updated December 4, 2025 — 1:23pm,first published December 4, 2025 — 12:17pm
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Senior West Australian Liberal Andrew Hastie has slammed the Albanese government’s handling of the seemingly undetected arrival of six Chinese nationals who were found wandering in a remote Aboriginal community on the state’s north coast earlier this week.
Two of the men were found wandering in and around the Kalumburu Aboriginal community on the far northern Kimberley coast by an off-duty police officer on Monday. Another four men were found by members of the public and border authorities at the townsite on Tuesday.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie.Alex Ellinghausen
The Australian Border Force refused to comment on the discovery and said it did not speak on operational matters.
But locals told this masthead three Border Force boats were seen off the coast of the community until Wednesday morning, and vision showed the men being handed to Australian Border Force officials by WA Police. They have since been detained.
A search is ongoing for the vessel the men are believed to have been using.
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It is the second time a group of foreign nationals have been detained after arriving by boat in the remote Kimberley region since February 2024, and comes amidst a steady rise in the number of illegal fishing boats recorded in Australian waters.
Canning MP Andrew Hastie said the discovery was deeply concerning.
“The Albanese government cannot secure our borders. Who are these people? They could be testing our border security for a foreign government and they have found us wanting,” he said.
“The north-west coastline of WA is exposed and that makes our economy vulnerable to sabotage.
“If we can’t detect these boats how can we detect threats to our mining and resources sector in Port Hedland and Karratha?”
Shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam said the incident represented another border failure for the Albanese government, which has been repeatedly criticised for its approach on immigration and border security.
Duniam claimed the government had been distracted by its recent dealings with the Middle East.
“They’ve fortunately been detained, but the real concern is the fact that they made it to the Australian mainland undetected, and made landfall,” he said.
“That is a very concerning development, and [as] is the fact that we’ve had a 20 per cent reduction in aerial surveillance across our northern coastline.
“This government’s approach to border security is a big part of the problem, and I’m afraid that the arrival that we know about today is going to send the wrong message to people who want to get here … illegally.
“They’re going to see that people made it here successfully and they’re going to try their luck.
“This is the problem with Labor’s approach to border security.”
However, Greens Senator David Shoebridge said Australia needed to keep its own immigration challenges in perspective, and believed the men should be treated as asylum seekers.
“I’ve just got back from a trip to Lebanon and the Middle East countries which are dealing with millions of refugees,” he said.
Senator David Shoebridge during a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday 1 December 2025. fedpol Photo: Alex EllinghausenAlex Ellinghausen
“And yes, it’s hard and tough, but to get some perspective, a country … with the wealth and resources of Australia should not go into a political meltdown because six people from China have sought asylum.
“The same politicians who will be trying to demonise these six are the same politicians who are demonising China, criticising its policies, people have a right to seek asylum.
“There are people in China who face persecution because of their ethnicity, their religion or their politics, and they have a right to seek asylum.
“If we had a rational debate on this, we would not have the country go into meltdown over six people seeking asylum from a country that doesn’t have the same political standards as us.”
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has been contacted for comment.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade referred all questions to the ABF.
The latest incident comes just a month after Albanese was left to fend off criticism of a controversial program that was also being run out of Western Australia’s northern coast.
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