Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka were told Labor’s move to put refugees living in Australia onto a new pathway to permanent residency would not weaken hardline border protection rules, despite the Coalition predicting “an armada” of boat arrivals.

The decision to move 19,000 holders of temporary protection and safe haven enterprise visas on to a track for residency was flagged with countries including Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam last week, as Foreign Minister Penny Wong led regional talks in Adelaide on people smuggling.