No 'horse trade' on Malaysia Solution

TALKS to resolve impasse over asylum-seeker processing look likely to fail after the opposition said it won't negotiate a deal.

TALKS aimed at resolving the impasse over processing of asylum-seekers look likely to fail after the opposition said it was not prepared to negotiate a deal.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said yesterday the Coalition was not prepared to support the government's Malaysia people swap simply in exchange for the government reopening the Howard-era detention centre on Nauru.

He said the purpose of the talks, which began before Christmas, was to explain the Coalition's position and outline the measures it was prepared to support, not to horse trade.

"We are there to tell the government what we will support: the restoration of the policies they abolished." Mr Morrison told The Australian.

The government and the opposition entered talks in a bid to restore offshore processing of asylum-seekers after the sinking of a boat off the coast of Java on December 17 that claimed about 200 lives.

In October, the government announced a regime of onshore processing after it failed to secure the Coalition's support for legislation to reinstate offshore processing and its Malaysia Solution, which the High Court had deemed unlawful.

Under that deal, Malaysia agreed to take 800 asylum-seekers in exchange for Australia settling 4000 declared refugees over a four-year period.

After the reinstatement of onshore processing, 1781 asylum-seekers arrived in the last two months of last year, including 1080 last month, only the second month to record more than 1000 boat arrivals.

The government has said it is prepared to reopen Nauru, but has insisted the Malaysia deal be part of any negotiated compromise, arguing that Nauru alone will not work.

Neither Immigration Minister Chris Bowen nor Mr Morrison, who have been in contact several times this year, would comment on the discussions.

Both cited an agreement to conduct the talks in confidence.

Mr Bowen said the talks were "taking place in good faith" and the government would have more to say in due course.

However, their public comments make it clear the government and the opposition harbour very different objectives about what can be achieved through the talks.

Mr Bowen has offered to re-open Nauru in exchange for Coalition support for the Malaysia deal, a gesture offered "in the spirit of compromise".

The Coalition, however, maintains it is not interested in bargaining.

Instead, it sees the talks as a means to outline its objections to the Malaysia deal and explain what the government needs to do to overcome them.

Mr Morrison said the Coalition had made it clear what its objections to the Malaysia deal were: mainly the absence of any legally enforceable protections for asylum-seekers transferred under the arrangement.

"These are the issues that the government would need to resolve to secure our support," Mr Morrison said. "Not through horse trading."