Kevin Rudd takes hard right stance on asylum seeker policy with PNG

"ARE we all ready to rock and roll?" asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, before taking a jaunty, emphatic step to the right.

Minster Peter

"ARE we all ready to rock and roll?" asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, before taking a jaunty, emphatic step to the right.

Mr Rudd has launched a radical policy that he hopes will help him keep his job.

In a blatant balm to the disgruntled voters of Western Sydney who too often conflate immigration issues with asylum seeker issues, he slammed shut the door to boatpeople.

To tackle "the scourge" of people smugglers, "from now on any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia", he thundered, in his gentle, roundcheeked manner.

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Asylum seekers have been a bugbear for Mr Rudd since his first try at being PM.

The ongoing political stalemate of the past three years has led to more boats and more deaths.

Mr Rudd needed a solution.

It may be the final box he wanted to tick before settling the election date. He needed something immediate, something that would cut through, and something that above all would have a hope of stopping the boats.

He did not have the luxury of time for more regional dialogue, or multi-lateral conferences.

He needed to look tough, and decisive, and - as he proudly declared - "hardline".

In 2010, Mr Rudd called a press conference after former Prime Minister Julia Gillard tapped him on the shoulder for a ballot.

His speech was his plea to caucus to keep him, and the main point he made was: "this party and government will not be lurching to the right on the question of asylum seekers as some have counselled us to do".

Almost exactly three years later, the day after he returned the favour by toppling Gillard, he told colleagues he would not "lurch to the left" on asylum seekers.

Mr Rudd, who made it clear that nothing would stand in the way of his ferocious desire to be Prime Minister, has shown he is happy to lurch like a drunkard to stay there.

For a moment he staggered back to sobriety to warn the process of shifting our responsibilities on to our neighbour would not be easy.

It will be expensive, he warned. And bumpy. And the boats won't stop coming tomorrow.

But none of that matters in this quasi-election campaign; the important thing is he has executed enough fancy footwork to keep the crowds happy.