FOREIGN Minister Bob Carr says there is now consensus with the coalition in some areas of asylum-seeker policy but the major divide remains Tony's Abbott's "reckless promise" to tow boats back to Indonesia.
Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in Brunei, Senator Carr said he stood by his remarks last week that there were cases of boats arriving in Australian waters where 100 per cent of those on board were not bona fide refugees.
The change in narrative from Labor has been criticised in some circles in Australia with the president of the Human Rights Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs, saying 90 per cent of asylum seekers were found to be genuine refugees.
"So I think that Senator Carr is making an assumption for which there's no evidence," Prof Triggs told the ABC.
However, Senator Carr said on Tuesday that he had seen the evidence and that he did not back away from his position that Australia needed a "harder-edged" assessment process.
"I absolutely stand by it because I've seen the data from some of the boats, and on some of the boats, after screening, it's clear that 100 per cent are motivated by economic factors and are not fleeing persecution," he told AAP.
"There is now consensus in Australian politics that this is the case because you can't ignore the evidence."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said on Tuesday that Labor had "finally woken up to the fact that the vast majority of these people are not fair dinkum refugees".
"They're economic migrants pure and simple," Mr Abbott said.
Senator Carr said that while there was consensus in some areas in the asylum-seeker debate, there was still a clear divide in terms of other policy responses.
"But whatever government is elected faces the same challenge and has the same set of policy tools apart from a reckless promise from the coalition to tow boats back and set them adrift in Indonesian waters," he said.
Senator Carr said the Labor government supported a "cooperative approach" that seeks a regional solution.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have the opportunity to pursue a cooperative response to the record flow of asylum seeker boats to Australia when he meets with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta this week.
Mr Rudd will discuss a range of bilateral matters with the Indonesian president, but the asylum seeker issue is expected to be high on the agenda.
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