Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he will hit the phones in a bid to ensure an agreement to allow investigators access to the MH17 crash site is honoured, signalling a growing frustration with delays on the ground in Donetsk.
The multi-national team, led by the Dutch and including Australian Federal Police, has been blocked twice from entering the site because of heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels.
On its second attempt, overnight on Monday, the team came 12 kilometres of the site, but was forced to retreat to Donetsk because of heavy shelling, despite the three parties agreeing to a ceasefire and the creation of a humanitarian corridor.
''It is high time those commitments are honoured,'' the Prime Minister told Macquarie Radio.
"I'll be making phone calls later today to see what we can do . . . I'll be talking soon to people on the ground to make sure that it happens, it happens as quickly as possible and it happens as safely as possible."
It is likely Mr Abbott's talks will be confined to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and the Prime Minister's envoy in Ukraine, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, who are in the troubled country.
The Prime Minister said it was ''frustrating'' that the team was being denied access.
''There are remains out there; there are bodies out there, we owe it to the dead, we owe it to the loved ones to get them back and that's what we are determined to do,'' he said.
His comments come as the AFP warns some victims' remains may never be found.
Earlier Ms Bishop said that Australia "would not be deterred" from bringing home its dead.
''We will do it again tomorrow, the same way until we can get to the crash site,'' she said.
''Everyday we will assess the situation, we will assess the operational risk and decide whether to proceed or not.''
Ms Bishop said while police officers would not be put in ''harm's way'', Australia would continue its efforts to try and ''retrieve the bodies of Australians''.
The Prime Minister described the situation on the ground as ''confused'', while Ms Bishop said the site was in the hands of separatists.
