( CNN ) -- The graphic footage of the wooden boat carrying up to 100 Iranian , Iraqi and Kurdish asylum seekers as it wrecked last week on the cliffs of Christmas Island has been seen around the world . At least 30 bodies have been recovered . Eighteen are still missing and presumed dead . Three children have been orphaned . The scenes have stunned residents of Christmas Island , an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean . Many residents tried in vain to assist those thrown into the sea as their boat broke apart . The disaster itself raises serious questions . How was it possible the boat could get so close to Christmas Island without the Australian navy being aware of its pending arrival ? Emergency services might not have been as prepared as they should have been . A commissioned report by the Australian government in January said , `` Some key island stakeholders such as medical , transport and port authority staff are not informed of the arrival of a vessel until the last possible moment . '' Certainly the navy , which systematically patrols the waters between Indonesia and Christmas Island , was caught napping . It took an hour and half for a small navy boat to arrive to render assistance . But the bigger questions concern the Australian government 's asylum polices and the arrival of refugee boats . More asylum seekers arrive in Australia by plane than by boat . There is no hysteria about their arrival . They are not routinely detained . The 20 pilgrims from Zimbabwe , Burundi , Kenya and Pakistan who applied for asylum following the Catholic Church 's World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008 were not branded as `` queue jumpers . '' But boat arrivals elicit a different response . Subject to mandatory detention on arrival , more than 5,700 asylum seekers -- including more than 800 children -- are in detention centers , with 2,700-plus on Christmas Island . More than 2,000 have been in detention for more than six months , and that figure is growing . Refugee boats were a major feature of this year 's federal election . Both major political parties campaigned on being tough with asylum seekers . In the wake of the election , public opinion has shifted against asylum seekers . But it is the policies of the Australian government that are largely responsible for pushing asylum seekers to get on boats to make the sometimes risky journey from Indonesia . The tragedy highlights three features of Australia 's refugee policy that must change . First , Australia has increasingly pressured the Indonesia government to detain asylum seekers -- whether or not they are mandated refugees under the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees , or UNHCR . Seekers are held in detention centers sometimes funded by the Australian government . This in itself is a strong incentive for asylum seekers to leave Indonesia as soon as possible . Second , until this year , Australia did not routinely resettle UNHCR refugees from Indonesia . This year , the Australian government said it will take 500 refugees from Indonesia , although , so far , fewer than 100 have been resettled , and the government has not guaranteed numbers for the future . It sometimes takes months for UNHCR to register asylum seekers and then more months for those claims to be processed . Once determined to be refugees , they can wait years for the UNHCR to find a country willing to resettle them . Understandably , other resettling countries consider asylum seekers in Indonesia to be Australia 's responsibility . The lack of any guaranteed resettlement is another powerful incentive for asylum seekers to take the boat journey from Indonesia to Australia . If Australia were willing to process asylum seekers and guarantee resettlement , far fewer asylum seekers would want or need to take the boat journey . Yet Prime Minister Julia Gillard 's Labor government takes proportionally fewer refugees than was the case under the conservative John Howard government . Third , the Australian government 's move to criminalize people-smuggling ( and by association asylum seekers themselves ) in Indonesia and Australia also provides a powerful disincentive for asylum boats to contact Australian authorities should they require assistance . A year ago , the Australian government called on the Indonesian government to intercept a boat of 253 Tamil asylum seekers . After a standoff at the Indonesian port of Merak , the Tamils were imprisoned at Tanjung Pinang , although all but 17 were found to be refugees . While the extreme weather may have been the immediate cause of the disaster at Christmas Island , just as surely , government policies drove that boat onto the cliffs . The pursuit of cheap electoral advantage has motivated successive governments to adopt such punitive policies . They behave as if there is a crisis when there is none . Those policies have cost the lives of at least dozens of people and scarred the lives of thousands of others who have been detained . In the Christmas Island tragedy , there is also an opportunity for a drastic shift in policy . Refugee advocates and members of the Labor Party have urged the government to seize this moment to implement a truly humanitarian policy . Whether Australia 's political leaders have the courage to make the shift remains to be seen . But the lives of future asylum seekers depend on their response . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Ian Rintoul .
Ian Rintoul : Dozens of asylum seekers die in boat wreck off Australia 's Christmas Island . Rintoul : Questions raised about response of Australian navy , island emergency services . Australia pressures Indonesia to detain asylum seekers , so they leave in boats , Rintoul writes . Detention policies , failure to resettle people lead to tragedies like Christmas Island , he says .