Asylum seeker boat wake-up call: govt

An asylum seeker boat found off Indonesia potential headed for Australia or New Zealand is a "significant wake-up call", Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

"We haven't seen activity on the water for a long period of time," he told the Nine Network on Sunday.

He warned people smugglers wanted are trying to get money out asylum seekers and if there was any chatter in Australia that border policy was going to change, they would be quickly back in business.