Tony Abbott has a new three-word slogan, crafted in response to appeals for Australia to resettle some of the thousands of refugees facing death in the Andaman Sea: "Nope, nope, nope."

Its fatal flaw is that it assumes the Bay of Bengal refugee crisis is identical to the one he faced when he came to power – and can be handled with the same unsustainable tool of deterrent and the same resort to simplistic "front door/back door" language. It can't.

Like John Howard's Pacific Solution, it sees every aspect of asylum seeker policy through the prism of whether a green light will be flashed at people smugglers. It misses the bigger picture and an opportunity to help forge a better way.