I'll turn back every boat, says Tony Abbott

TONY Abbott has decided that a Coalition government will instruct the navy to force asylum-seeker boats back to Indonesia.

TONY Abbott has decided that a Coalition government will instruct the navy to turn around asylum-seeker boats on the water and return them to Indonesia in an assertion of Australian border protection.

The Opposition Leader is determined to impose a new and tougher unilateral policy whereby Australia uses its naval forces to actively secure its borders.

If elected prime minister, the first nation Mr Abbott will visit is Indonesia. He will go as a committed friend, but tell Jakarta that Australia will no longer passively accept the arrival of asylum-seeker boats from that country.

This is a radical policy departure that has far-reaching and unpredictable consequences for Australia-Indonesia relations.

In recent talks with his colleagues on this issue, Mr Abbott has said: "This is a test of wills and Australia has lost. What counts is what the Australian government does, not what it says. It is time for Australia to adopt turning the boats as its core policy."

This will involve an increase in the number of naval vessels to turn the boats, including the capacity to remove asylum-seekers from deliberately sabotaged vessels before repairing those vessels to enable the boatpeople to be returned to Indonesia.

The Coalition has also ruled out a political deal to revive Labor's Malaysia Solution and is planning a tougher regime of temporary protection visas. This includes a quota on the number of permanent visas issued to TPV holders to favour authorised asylum-seekers and to provide a disincentive to people making the journey by boat. The new policy of "turning the boats" has been agreed between Mr Abbott and opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison. The purpose is to signal to the people-smugglers that a Coalition government will use naval force to stop boats reaching Australia and to smash their industry.

Mr Abbott accepts his new policy will have brutal overtones. But he believes Australia's self-respect as a nation means that it cannot tolerate any longer the permanent flow of boats from Indonesia with people paying the smugglers for the chance to settle here. This heralds a decisive change in Coalition priorities. While offshore processing is still seen as important, the primary policy emphasis will fall on returning boats to Indonesia and imposing the tougher regime of TPVs.

Labor's border protection regime has been in limbo since August, when the High Court struck down the government's plans to swap 800 asylum-seekers for 4000 refugees from Malaysia. The Coalition, which would prefer to reopen the Howard-era refugee processing centre on Nauru, has refused to back any legislation that would allow the government to pursue its Malaysia Solution.

Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison have no intention of cutting any "Malaysia-for-Nauru" deal with Labor in their confidential talks that began before Christmas.

Mr Abbott's new policy rests on his conviction that Labor has lost control of Australia's borders, that its protection policies have no credibility and that Australia is being "played for a mug" by the people-smuggling industry.

All boats leaving from Indonesia will be subject to the policy.

But Mr Abbott recognises it will be impracticable to turn back every boat, given sabotage techniques. He would rely upon navy advice on the best way to make the boats safe and viable for the return journey.

Mr Abbott will seek closer co-operation with Jakarta. He will increase Australian aid to Indonesia and strive to achieve better co-operation on combating the people-smuggling trade. The starting point, however, will be the new unilateral Australian rejection of boats.

The Abbott policy recognises that with the High Court decision and the deadlock in parliament, offshore processing is now a more limited option. The Coalition is sure it can establish offshore processing in Nauru, but admits it cannot go elsewhere under existing law.

This leads to its second policy instrument: the re-introduction of TPVs on a tougher basis with a quota system to restrict the number of permanent visas available for TPV holders.

Mr Morrison will re-cast policy to favour under-privileged offshore refugee applicants over boatpeople arrivals. His intention is to "create a queue" for permanent visas among unauthorised boatpeople arrivals who are on TPVs. The motive is to build more disincentives against making the boat journey.

It is a radical departure from Labor policy. The Coalition will provide TPVs to eligible boatpeople for between six months and three years. These visas deny family reunion and prevent any holder who leaves Australia from returning. At their expiry, the Coalition will send people home if the threat in their home country has eased. Mr Abbott intends that the Coalition would police this firmly.

A permanent visa would be granted only if two conditions were met: the refugee claim was valid and a place was available under the quota. That is, people will stay on TPVs until they go home or a permanent place becomes available. Under Labor there are no TPVs and eligible applicants get a permanent visa.

The Coalition envisages a maximum 3750-quota applying both to boat arrivals and those who arrive legally and then make a refugee claim. The latter will have priority under the quota. Boat arrivals would be last in the new queue.

Mr Morrison is bent on reversing the consequences of Labor's policy where offshore places have fallen because of permanent places given to boat arrivals. He says those refugees who cannot get a boat are typically frail, unable to work and too poor to pay smugglers.

Mr Abbott and Mr Morrison recognise a big effort will be required with Indonesia. They believe Labor's relations with Indonesia have failed to recover from the Gillard government's decision to halt the live cattle export trade a year ago.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the Australian government at the time that the decision contradicted his understanding of the bilateral relationship.