Rudd 'dishonest' on refugees: Abbott

Opposition Leader Abbott claimed the controversial policy announcement – which clears the decks for the official start of the campaign – was cobbled together to appear as a credible solution until the election.

‘‘Mr Rudd is essentially misleading the Australian people,’’ Mr Abbott said.

New refugee policy is legal, insists Labor

‘‘This is simply something that is held together with Blu Tack and sticky tape to last until the election if possible.’’

Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the arrangement between Australia and Papua New Guinea had no legal status, warning it could be ‘‘struck down at any time’’ be legal challenges.

He also raised the possibility that Papua New Guinea might reject refugees of Muslim faith, warning it would be up to the PNG to made decisions about who was accepted.

‘‘I can only assume that if someone is a criminal threat, if someone is a terrorist threat, if someone has a communicable disease or anything of that nature, it won’t be PNG’s problem, it will be Australia’s problem and they will remain in Australia where under law we will have some obligations to them,’’ he said.

‘‘There is also the potential for the PNG government to form policy that may seek to prevent particular cohorts of people being transferred from Australia to Papua New Guinea. In particular, they could form the view that they don’t want people who don’t have documentation ... we know almost 90 per cent of people who turn up in Australia have no documentation.’’

Mr Morrison also raised the issue of how children would be dealt with, saying the government’s plan would create a perverse incentive to include children on boats because those aged under seven could not be sent to Manus Island for health reasons.

Mr Abbott said Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill, had made it clear that the number of refugees that would be accepted would be limited by the country’s capacity to accommodate them.

‘‘At the moment the capacity on PNG is about 300 persons only. Given the current rate of arrivals this number ... would be swamped in just a couple of days,’’ he said.

Despite the sharp criticism, Mr Abbott would not rule out keeping the policy in government.

‘‘We are not saying there is no merit in agreements with other countries,’’ he said.

‘‘Obviously the former Coalition had agreements with other countries including PNG.’’

The Coalition criticism followed Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus declaring he was confident that Labor's policy of refusing to accept any asylum seekers who arrived by boat would survive legal challenge.

Interviewed on Channel Ten, Mr Dreyfus said the arrangement announced by the prime minister on Friday complied with Australian law and its obligations under the refugee convention.

"Lawyers are free to say whatever they wish, but we have given very careful consideration to this arrangement with Papua New Guinea," Mr Dreyfus said.

Under the deal, all asylum seekers who arrive by boat will be transferred to Papua New Guinea for processing.

If found to be refugees, they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea or a third country.

"I am confident that it will withstand challenge," Mr Dreyfus said.

"We have the advantage of recent decisions of the High Court on which to base the course that we're adopting here." 

The High Court in September 2011 scuttled then Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to transfer asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for accepting refugees from Malaysia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr said told Sky News it might be necessary for a re-elected Labor Government to legislate the PNG arrangement.

But he said the government believed it was "legally very robust’’.

"We've designed this with the High Court response to the Malaysian arrangement very much in mind," Senator Carr said.

Senator Carr defended the policy, arguing on current trends boat arrivals could grow to 50,000 a year, making a tough response to stem the rise unavoidable.

"You have got 3000 people arriving a month. The annual rate is something like 40 to 50,000 a year if it continues at this level," he said.

"If it continues at this level - the Prime Minister was very persuaded by this - it could rise further as people smugglers really close in to make a financial killing."

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey said a coalition government would try to make the PNG arrangement work.

"We would certainly look at trying to make it work," he told Channel Ten.

"It would be starting point but we have got to get to the bottom of it.

"The Government has found a budget for its advertising of the deal but it has not found a budget for the deal."

Immigration Minister Tony Burke told ABC TV that work needed to be done on the Manus Island facility to make it suitable for women, children and families.

Asked how long this would take, Mr Burke said, "I don't think we'll be looking at a long period of time at all," but would not outline a timeframe.

Mr Burke said it was Australia's "guarantee" that asylum seekers who arrived by boat since Friday's announcement would not be resettled in Australia.

"The commitment that people won't be settled in Australia is a commitment of the Australian government," he said.

Mr Burke also warned that asylum seekers involved in a riot on Friday at the detention centre in Nauru could be refused visas or have their visa cancelled on character grounds.

"No one should underestimate the legal power that I have as Immigration Minister ... to refuse or cancel visas on character grounds," Mr Burke said.

"I'm not going to prejudge individual cases, but people can imagine how issues like that can reflect on character."

Climate change minister Mark Butler admitted on Sunday there was some discomfort within Labor ranks about the party's new asylum seeker policy.

But Mr Butler, a member of the left faction, said it was widely accepted that strong action was needed on the issue.

"There would be people within the Labor movement and the Labor party and the broader community who would feel uncomfortable with this," he told Sky News.

"In my discussions with some people over the last couple of days, although there is a level of discomfort about some aspects of this, there is also a very strong and clear recognition that something very different needs to be done," he said.

smh.com.au, with AAP