By Walter Jayawardhana

Liberal Party back bencher Wilson Tuckey in Australia said he has been vindicated by the admission of a senior Tamil person in Australia there could be terrorists on the asylum seeker boats.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation published the following report quoting Tuckey .

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey says a senior figure within the Australian Tamil community has vindicated his claims that terrorists could be on board asylum seeker boats.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Today the secretary of the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations, Victor Rajakulendran, told ABC News Radio he would not be surprised if former Tamil Tigers were trying to escape Sri Lanka.

“That is a probability, that is what I have been told, so out of 200 Tamil asylum seekers, there could be a Tiger,” he said.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Mr Rajakulendran says any Tigers on the boats “should be classified as liberation fighters and not terrorists”.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-But Mr Tuckey says Mr Rajakulendran’s comments underline the point he has being trying to make.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Last week, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd challenged Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to disendorse Mr Tuckey as a Liberal Party candidate at the next federal election as punishment for the comments he made about asylum seekers.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Mr Tuckey says he has received phone calls supporting his views and he has warned the Prime Minister to stop bullying him.

“For Mr Rudd to come out and try to bully me, I’m no flight attendant and the reality of it is that seems to be his only defence for failed public policy,” Mr Tuckey said.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-And Mr Tuckey has now changed his attack on the Government over the increasing number of asylum seekers arriving in Australia.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-He wonders if there are enough personnel on Christmas Island now to conduct health and security checks on the detained asylum seekers.

“The question is how thoroughly are those sort of things being done,” he said.

“What is their health status and what threat, unfortunately, might they represent to children and others within Australia?

“I mean these are the things that must be established – I wonder, considering this massive influx, how many qualified people he has got over there to do the job in the interest of Australia.”