The boat capsized 14 nautical miles northwest of Christmas Island, often targeted by asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers often target Christmas Island, off Australia's northwest coast, to get to the country.
Two years ago, the succeeding Labor government began processing arrivals on Christmas Island instead.
ECONOMIST: A tragic sinking revives a debate about boat people
Christmas Island's population is composed predominantly of asylum seekers, with about 2, 000 refugees and detention-center staff living there.
WSJ: Boat Carrying Asylum Seekers Capsizes Off Christmas Island
Several boats have sunk or had to be rescued in the past as they made their way to Christmas Island.
"When the boat crashed coming into Christmas Island I thought, serve you bastards right, " she said at the beginning of the programme.
Several boats have sunk or had to be rescued in recent months as they sailed from Indonesia to the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
It was "a very fortunate coincidence that customs were within the vicinity and able to respond very quickly, " Christmas Island Administrator Jon Stanhope told Australian broadcaster ABC.
Christmas Island's 1, 400 residents are outnumbered by more than 2, 700 asylum-seekers housed in a centre for boat people who have been intercepted on their way to Australia.
ECONOMIST: A tragic sinking revives a debate about boat people
After Labor won power in 2007 it closed the camps and processed boat people on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, as well as on the mainland.
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Christmas Island - which lies about 2, 600km (1, 600 miles) from Australia but only 300km south of Indonesia - is often targeted because it is the closest piece of Australian territory to Indonesia.
On Sunday, as a plane sat on the tarmac at Christmas Island waiting to transport the first group of asylum seekers to Malaysia, a High Court judge issued a temporary injunction halting the planned departure.
Christmas Island, around 220 miles south of Java and around 1, 600 miles from the Australian mainland, is a front line for Australia's border protection and a black spot for the often rickety boats that smugglers use to transport people seeking asylum.
WSJ: Boat Carrying Asylum Seekers Capsizes Off Christmas Island
More than 1, 000 ex-servicemen say their lives were destroyed after the UK carried out a series of nuclear weapons tests in mainland Australia, the Montebello islands off the west Australian coast and on Christmas Island, in the Pacific, between 1952 and 1958.
Six Australian Customs and Border Protection Service Marine Enforcement Officers serving aboard the Australian Customs and Border Protection Vessel Triton, and 12 members of the Australian Defence Force serving on the patrol boat HMAS Pirie, nominated by Australia, for rescuing 41 survivors from a small wooden vessel which had smashed against rocks off Christmas Island, in December 2010, with an estimated 70 to 100 persons on board.
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In 15 years, she was never in Rhode Island except for an occasional Christmas visit.
Swimmers on Coney Island, identical twins at a Christmas party for twins and triplets, ageing fur-coated women on buses or smoking at diner counters were caught at awkward moments, all revealing more about themselves than they might wish.
Carnival can choose from a growing number of 4D films, including Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas.
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In total 103 different species were spotted between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve on the island.
The protest group, the Chagos Island Community Association, said conditions had deteriorated over Christmas because of the cold and because the social services building where the group use facilities had been closed.
Christmas's appeal against his conviction will be heard by the island's Court of Appeal next week.
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