LABOR today endorsed the Government’s refusal to rescue thousands of asylum seekers stranded at sea after fleeing religious persecution in Myanmar.

The Government has refused requests from Indonesia to take in some of the boat people, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten today made that a bipartisan issue.

Jakarta has said Australia has an obligation under United Nation conventions to join it and Malaysia in accepting some of the boat people. But Mr Shorten today joined the Government in rejecting that appeal.

He said there were other responses the Government could consider.

“But the answer doesn’t mean that we take these people here,” the Labor leader told reporters.

“What it does mean that we just do what we’ve done in the past with other humanitarian disasters, is that we provide some form or assistance.

“But no one says when there is a disaster in some other part of the world that the only option to doing nothing is to take in all the survivors ourselves.”

Mr Shorten acknowledged reports of “terrible” treatment of the Rohingya people who make up most of the stranded refugees, along with people from Bangladesh. However, there will be influential Labor figures unhappy with his agreement with Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the question of resettling the asylum seekers here.

Mr Abbott today repeated his refusal to take them in, which he had announced yesterday with a “nope, nope, nope”.

Australia has given Myanmar $6 million to help minorities but Mr Abbott today said accepting them here would be rewarding people smugglers, and he effectively argued that putting these boat people in peril would deter others from making the dangerous journey.

“There is no way that any country should be encouraging people to take to the sea in boats. It is very dangerous,” he said.

Mr Abbott told reporters: “Any suggestion there is some kind of special resettlement program here in Australia for people taking to the sea in boats just encourages people smuggling.

“It would be utterly irresponsible of me or anyone to suggest for a second that we will reward people for doing something so dangerous.”

Mr Shorten attempted to argue Mr Abbott was being simplistic by giving just one response to the problem.

He backed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who wanted talks with the military Myanmar government to halt persecutions, but gave no further details and even questioned whether the approach would work.

“If the government of Myanmar could sort this out people wouldn’t be fleeing,” he said.

In a bid to distance Labor from the Government’s position Mr Shorten said: “Tony Abbott shouldn’t dumb the issue down to saying either we take these people or we do nothing. Australia is a smarter, more generous nation.”

He proposed working with near neighbours on the issue.