Yes Australia has a joint defense agreement with the United Sates and the US take this very seriously.
When China was bullying/posturing with Philippines over disputed islands last year the US made a very public statement that it had a joint defense agreement with PH and any attack on them would be an attack on the US itself.
Something we should all keep in mind amongst so much US bashing we hear.
At any rate this is mere posturing for a domestic audience really. Abbot has made it clear that he will defend our borders and I think everyone believes him now. It would be an optimistic asylum seeker who got a boat to Christmas island in these times, I think a dent has really been made into this people smuggling racket, hopefully the flow will become just a manageable trickle going forward
