Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott at stalemate over law changes to allow offshore processing

LABOR is poised to drop offshore processing of asylum-seekers after Tony Abbott rejected its bid to revive the Malaysian Solution.

LABOR is poised to abandon offshore processing of asylum-seekers following Tony Abbott's rejection of proposed legal changes to allow its Malaysian Solution to proceed.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen tonight said the government would not support Mr Abbott's alternative plan to process asylum-seekers on Nauru, making onshore-only processing almost certain.

“I've said consistently, the Prime Minister has said consistently, Nauru is not a disincentive in and of itself, it's expensive and we will not be going down that road,” Mr Bowen said.

“Very clearly, if this legislation doesn't pass, then offshore processing will be regarded as unlawful.

“And therefore the obvious result of that is onshore processing.”

The parties are now at a stalemate after each rejected the other's proposed legislative amendments to put offshore processing beyond doubt.

The amendments followed the High Court's ruling last month declaring the Malaysian refugee swap unlawful.

Mr Bowen said the government would still introduce its amendments into parliament, and would oppose the Coalition's amendments requiring processing countries to be parties to the UN refugee convention.

The government wanted to allow asylum-seekers to be sent to countries that complied with the obligations of the UN refugee convention without requiring them to be signatories to the agreement.

The plan was tailored to allow the Malaysian refugee swap, with Malaysia a non-signatory to the convention.

Mr Abbott said the proposal paid “lip service” to the opposition's concerns over protections for asylum-seekers, and faced the risk of being invalidated by judicial review.

“I will be taking to our party room tonight a proposal for amendments which will put beyond legal doubt the ability of the government to send people offshore for processing, provided they are sent to countries which have acceded to the UN refugee convention,” he said this afternoon.

“It will restore offshore processing while retaining offshore protections. It is in my judgment a much superior proposal to the one the government has put forward.”

But Mr Bowen said Mr Abbott had shown himself to be hypocritical.

“Why is it OK to turn around boats on the high seas and point to them a non-signatory country with no protection, no guarantees, no agreement?” he said, referring to Coalition support for returning boats to Indonesia.

Julia Gillard met privately with Mr Abbott earlier today, presenting him with the proposed legislative amendments to get around the High Court's ruling, which placed offshore processing in doubt.

Under Labor's amendments, designated countries would have to agree to process asylum-seekers and refrain from sending them back to the country of origin.

“It makes it clear in these arrangements that the minister.... would need to have regard to the national interest and specifically would need to have regard to whether or not the country that asylum-seekers were being taken to met the principle obligations under the refugee convention,” Ms Gillard said.