Anthony Albanese 'has confidence' in Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, slams Scott Morrison's boats 'scare campaign'

The new Prime Minister told ABC radio this morning the Coalition's decision to announce an asylum seeker boat interception on election day was in breach of caretaker conventions, and stood in stark contrast to Mr Morrison's refusal as immigration minister to comment on so-called "on-water matters".

"Very clearly, this statement was made so that it could facilitate the sending of, we're not sure how many, but potentially many millions of text messages to voters in a last minute scare campaign," Mr Albanese said.

"It was an entire abuse of proper processes and a disgraceful act from a government which was prepared to politicise everything, but solve nothing."

The ABC is reporting that the Prime Minister's Office instructed Australian Border Force to publicly release details of the interception before it had been completed.

Mr Albanese said when Mr Morrison's staff contacted his office about the matter on Saturday, Labor indicated it would be inappropriate for the event to be politicised.

Asked this morning whether he had confidence in Mr Pezzullo after Australian Border Force confirmed the boat interception on election day, Mr Albanese said he did, and railed against the former prime minister.

"This was a decision made by Scott Morrison in a desperate attempt to run a last-minute scare campaign," Mr Albanese said.

"This was an interception by the Australian Border Force. The processes were still underway. And it was extraordinary that this statement was made in order to enable those text messages to be sent to people.

"People were wondering what was going on when they were receiving that text message. It just showed that the government had really lost perspective.

"They were prepared to politicise anything and everything. And this was a real lowlight. Amongst many, there was some competition in the recent period by the former government. But this was a new low."

Mr Morrison used his final press conference of the election campaign to confirm a vessel trying to enter Australia from Sri Lanka had been intercepted.

The then-prime minister said he was confirming the development in the interests of "full transparency". Border Force also confirmed the boat interception via a statement.

"A vessel has been intercepted in a likely attempt to illegally enter Australia from Sri Lanka," the statement read.

"The Australian government's policy remains unchanged. We will intercept any vessel seeking to reach Australia illegally and to safely return those on board to their point of departure or country of origin."

The new Labor government has ordered the Home Affairs Department to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

A Border Force spokesperson on Friday said it would be inappropriate to comment while Home Affairs prepares a report for the government.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government risked lives in publicising the interception.

"This is a matter where actually when it came to border security there was a national consensus that this government sought to undermine. It sought to create division where none existed and sought to make this a matter of politics," he said.

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Mr Morrison's confirmation on Saturday followed days of repeated hardline messaging from the Coalition that it was the party to "stop boats" and protect borders.

Then-defence minister Peter Dutton, all but certain to become the next opposition leader, used the Border Force announcement on polling day to tell voters not to "risk national security" by choosing Labor.

Text messages to voters about an intercepted asylum seeker boat on election day were sent without the approval of the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews.

Ms Andrews has defended the Border Force media release about the boat intercepted in Australian waters as "operationally focused".

"It was actually an important thing to do, given the fact it was election day and there needed to be transparency," she said.

The new Labor government turned back its first asylum seeker boat this week.

Operation Sovereign Borders safely returned the boat to Sri Lanka on Tuesday after it was intercepted near Christmas Island on Saturday, an Australian Border Force spokesman said.