Tony Abbott says a future Coalition government would cut Australia's humanitarian refugee intake by more than 6,000 places, despite a previous offer to boost the quota.

As the Coalition tries to increase pressure on the Government over the issue of border protection, Mr Abbott has also suggested that asylum seekers released into the community on bridging visas should be required to work in return for welfare payments.

The Government is increasing Australia's annual refugee intake to 20,000 places this year, in line with one of the recommendations of the expert panel on asylum seekers.

But Mr Abbott has pledged to return the quota to just 13,750 - a move that is estimated to save the budget $1.4 billion over the forward estimates - arguing that the extra places are sending the "wrong message" to people smugglers.

"Under this Government, those positions are increasingly being filled by the people who are coming to this country illegally by boat," Mr Abbott told AM.

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"We need to send the strongest possible message to the people smugglers and their clients that the game is up, we will not be dictated to by criminals.

"We will not allow ourselves to be played for mugs by people smugglers."

Earlier this year, Mr Abbott offered to support an increase in the humanitarian intake to 20,000 places as part of the negotiations aimed at breaking the political deadlock over asylum seeker policy.

He has rejected suggestions today's announcement is a back flip, instead saying the earlier offer had expired.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says he is disappointed by the Coalition's announcement, adding that Mr Abbott's reasons for the change do not make sense.

"Mr Abbott has said today that the increase [in the humanitarian intake] sends all the wrong signals to asylum seekers - he just doesn't get it," Mr Bowen told reporters in Sydney.

"It sends the right signal. It sends the signal that there's another way - that you don't have to get on the boat to get a chance of a better life in Australia."

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young agrees that cutting the humanitarian intake could backfire and actually encourage more asylum seekers to attempt the boat journey to Australia.

"He doesn't know much about the issue, he doesn't understand the issue, and frankly he doesn't care," Senator Hanson-Young told reporters in Canberra.

On Wednesday, Mr Bowen announced that the Government would be releasing thousands of asylum seekers into the community on bridging visas because there had been too many boat arrivals to process everyone offshore.

People on those visas are not allowed to work, do not have access to family reunions, and are provided with a limited amount of financial support from the Government.

Mr Abbott has suggested there should be some sort of "mutual obligation" on those asylum seekers receiving welfare support.

"If it is right and proper for young Australians to be working for the dole, surely it is even more right and proper for people who have come illegally to our country to be pulling their weight," he said.

"I think it is very, very important that there be no free ride.

"There certainly shouldn't be a free ride for people who have come uninvited to our country."

Some within Labor are concerned that the use of bridging visas could result in a poverty-stricken underclass, and have argued that asylum seekers should be allowed to work.

West Australian-based Labor MP Melissa Parke has suggested that asylum seekers should be given the option of living and working in areas where there are labour shortages.

Refugee advocate Pamela Curr thinks asylum seekers would embrace the opportunity to work.

"People would far rather do a day's work than sit in some crummy little flat or a house getting a pittance and having nothing to do," Ms Curr told AM.

"They say to me the best way to get well after two years in detention is to work because while you're working you stop thinking about your family, about what happened to you and what the lack of future.

"Work is the best medicine and these are people who embrace it willingly."

But Senator Hanson-Young says the Coalition's policy would not only push asylum seekers into poverty, it would then force them to work for it.

She says a better option would be to give asylum seekers full work rights so they can provide for their families.