Tony Abbott not budging on Malaysia Solution for asylum-seekers

TONY Abbott is refusing to accept Labor's Malaysia Solution despite the government embracing his plan to reopen a facility on Nauru.

TONY Abbott is refusing to accept Labor's Malaysia Solution on asylum-seekers despite the government formally embracing his plan to reopen a processing facility on the Pacific island of Nauru under a suite of measures to stop people-smuggling.

The Opposition Leader is also sticking to his demand that Labor reintroduce temporary protection visas and turn back asylum-seeker boats - policies that Labor will not accept despite its determination to cut a deal on a new regime for offshore processing.

Mr Abbott made his position clear after days of pressure from the government for talks in the wake of the weekend sinking off Indonesia of an asylum-seeker vessel headed for Australia.

Up to 200 people, mainly from the Middle East, died in the tragedy, which has created impetus within the government to seek an end to the long-running political impasse over an appropriate location for offshore processing.

The Australian yesterday revealed that after years of demonising the Howard-era processing centre on Nauru, cabinet had authorised Immigration Minister Chris Bowen to offer support for its reopening in return for Coalition support for legislation allowing its plan to exchange 800 asylum-seekers who arrive in Australia by boat for 4000 proven refugees from Malaysia.

Last night, Labor formalised the about-face, with Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan making the offer in writing to Mr Abbott.

But Mr Abbott today dismissed Labor's proposal.

“The Malaysia deal is a bad deal,” he told the ABC this morning.

“It was a bad deal six months ago, it's a bad deal today and it will be a bad deal tomorrow and the day after.”

Mr Abbott said the Nauru processing centre could be operating again within a matter of weeks and would send a signal to people smugglers that the “game was up”.

“If you've got Nauru, you don't need Malaysia,” he told the Nine Network.

“Nauru can be up and running in a matter of weeks.

“Let's get cracking on Nauru, that would send the strongest signal to the people smugglers that the game was up.”

Mr Abbott said the government's reluctance to reinstate temporary protection visas was still a key sticking point.

“If the government can rule out TPVs then I'm saying we rule out Malaysia."

Despite Mr Abbott's stand, his immigration spokesman Scott Morrison will meet Mr Bowen later today to try to thrash out a deal.

Mr Bowen said this morning he believed Mr Morrison was a man of good faith and they could reach an agreement, but it would depend on whether the Liberal Party gave its immigration spokesman the authority to do so.

“Today is the test, isn't it? We are going to have a meeting today between the government and the opposition. That is a welcome step. I wish it had happened nine days ago, but I really do genuinely welcome the fact that it's going to happen today,” Mr Bowen told ABC Radio.

“The test is whether that meeting is held in good faith. If we are going to have a meeting where we lecture each other about the benefits of our policy and the drawbacks of the other side's policy, then there's no point."

The Coalition opposes the Malaysia refugee swap deal is because the Asian nation has not signed up to the UN agreement on the treatment of refugees.

In September, Julia Gillard told parliament she had the clearest possible advice from the same experts who advised the Howard government that processing asylum-seekers on Nauru would be expensive and not act as a deterrent to people-smugglers.

Mr Bowen also wrote in The Australian that people-smugglers knew that if asylum-seekers were sent to Nauru and were found to be refugees, they would be resettled in Australia.

"That is not an effective deterrent," Mr Bowen wrote.

Last month, Mr Swan told parliament that the government had been advised "that Nauru simply does not work" and "there is not a shred of policy credibility in Nauru".

However, after a shift within Labor's Left faction sparked in part by the Indonesian tragedy, Mr Bowen said late yesterday the government would accept processing on Nauru in the spirit of compromise even though the government doubted its efficacy.

In his letter to Mr Abbott yesterday, Mr Swan said: "We are offering Nauru because we believe the country is looking to us to work together and because at such times willingness to compromise is demanded, not because we believe Nauru will work."

Mr Bowen said the government would also continue talks with the Papua New Guinea government, aimed at reopening a processing centre on Manus Island.

"The time for yelling at each other about this issue has stopped," Mr Bowen said.

"The time for saying no has well and truly passed. People are losing their lives on the high seas."

Mr Bowen said Labor and the Liberal Party must come together to affirm there was "nothing humanitarian" about a system that encouraged people to risk their lives.

A spokesman for the Nauru government said the island nation was happy to discuss ways in which it could be of assistance. On Tuesday, Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said his government was open to the return to a processing facility on Manus Island. "We'd like to help where we can," he said.

The latest developments came amid growing community pressure for politicians to work together for acceptable outcomes to prevent further deaths at sea.

World Vision Australia chief executive Tim Costello expressed frustration with the ongoing impasse, calling for bipartisanship.

"If we are going to prevent these deaths, we need to work together and find a solution that's orderly and equitable," he said.

He said it was morally clear the issue should not be politicised.

"Whatever the regime, onshore or offshore, Australia still has an obligation to make sure people are treated decently and their claims processed quickly," he said.

Australian Christian Lobby director Jim Wallace called for politicians to "sort it out" quickly. "We can't have people dying in the gap while both sides are engaged in political posturing," Mr Wallace said. "I believe the only way to break the criminal model is offshore processing."

Amnesty International spokesman Andrew Beswick also called for an end to "grandstanding" but expressed horror over the prospect of a reopening of Nauru.

"Reopening a detention centre which was a major blight on Australia's human rights record is, put simply, an outsourcing of our responsibility to provide desperate people with adequate protections," Mr Beswick said.

"The government is effectively attempting to defuse this problem by shifting the issue beyond the Australian public's eye."

The Greens, now the only party that rejects the notion that onshore processing is a beacon for people-smugglers, last night attacked Labor's shift.

"This is a very sad moment for people who wanted their government to stand firm and treat asylum-seekers humanely," Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said. "In June 2002, Julia Gillard herself said the Pacific Solution was 'an illusion, not a solution'. She was right."

Senator Hanson-Young said the government should follow the example of Malcolm Fraser's administration, which in the 1970s and 1980s worked with Australia's neighbours to deal with refugees.

"Ignoring our international obligations to assess people's claims onshore by expelling them to Nauru or Malaysia or elsewhere for short-term political gain won't prevent people who will continue to try escaping persecution."