Christmas Island rescue boats 'too late'

A survivor of the Christmas Island boat tragedy has told an inquest that more people would have survived if rescue boats had arrived sooner.
The 43-year-old man, who can't be identified, was responding after the lawyer for the survivors, Claire O'Connor, said: "you were in the water for a long time waiting for the rescue boats. In your view if the rescue boats came quicker fewer people would have died?"
He replied, "In my humble mind I think 10-15 minutes earlier many people would have survived."
Australian authorities acted "reluctantly", he said.
"They came out of their boat, they smoked cigarettes. If they had acted quickly they would have saved a lot of lives."
Ms O'Connor also asked whether before undertaking the journey the man knew that the Australian government would "lock people up in detention centres", to which he replied, "no".
The man told the coronial inquest on Tuesday that before he went on the ill-fated journey, he met the people smuggler at the airport in Indonesia.
After speaking with that man he believed the journey would be safe.
He was told there would be enough food, water and life jackets for everybody on board what he believed would be a safe vessel.
But days later the wooden fishing vessel carrying 89 asylum seekers and three Indonesian crew struck rocks at Christmas Island and was torn apart in monstrous seas, killing 50 people on board. Only 42 survived.
"From the beginning I didn't think it was going to be a dangerous trip," the man told the inquest.
He said the people smuggler told him he was a millionaire who didn't really need the money but still asked for $US5,000 per adult to take them to Australia.
When he eventually got to the fishing vessel after being ferried out to sea, he immediately noticed that there weren't enough life jackets on board.
The Iraqi-born man, who moved to Iran in the early 1990s, decided to flee the country with his wife and 10-year-old daughter at the start of December 2010.
He was later joined by his sister-in-law, her husband and their daughter who were all on board SIEV 221 when it crashed on December 15, 2010.
"We were all hopeful... I thought about a better future for my children, we were going to a nice country and all had hope for the future," he said.
As the boat neared Christmas Island at about 5.30am on December 15, the engine on board the boat stopped for the third time. The boat was then eventually pushed into rocks by the huge swell.
The man grabbed as many of the few life jackets that were on board as he could and put them on his wife and daughter.
He then realised his sister-in-law didn't have a life jacket so he removed his and gave it to her.
As the boat broke apart the man fell into the water and held onto a piece of wood to try to stay afloat.
"I can't swim... I went into the water and when I came up from the water a life jacket came to me and I just grabbed the life jacket," he said.
When the Navy arrived he was thrown a rope. But he didn't want to risk his life by letting go of the life jacket he was holding.
The man, who now lives in Adelaide, has since been recognised as a refugee and is awaiting a visa.
The inquest before West Australia Coroner Alastair Hope continues.