Combined with the resentment of the treatment of her predecessor, it could spell years of recovery for the Australian Labor Party, while Tony Abbott takes the country back to the Dark Ages with the towing of boats and ignoring climate change. The Prime Minister is aware of the stakes. She may think she's dispensed with the three key issues of her pre-election premiership - the mining resources tax, climate change and asylum seekers - but all loom as election conflicts. There is no issue as worrying and divisive as an election fought on the issue of asylum seekers. Immigration Minister Chris Evans confessed this issue is ''killing'' Labor, but is this reason enough for Gillard to join the Opposition Leader in a ''race to the bottom'', in the words of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, on the issue? Gillard's stance on asylum seekers may not simply be driven by polls. In some respects, her views on this issue have been evident for a decade: I recall her disdain for the Democrats' opposition to the Tampa-inspired border protection legislation in 2001.

In the past few weeks, Gillard's rhetoric on refugees has been about acknowledging voters' ''anxieties''. Thus, she has been expressing sympathy for those of us desperate about the lack of compassion in the migration debate, while appealing to those who may fear Australia is being overrun by those seeking asylum. Instead of explaining away people's fears or crafting a policy based on our international obligations (such as processing claims for asylum on shore), vulnerable people are being used as election props. Nothing is as awful in the human predicament as being homeless and stateless and afraid with no future and only fear in the past. Pandering to groundless fears of being ''swamped'' or of an ''open door policy'' isn't working: another way has to be found and it must be from the point of view that these are suffering human beings often fleeing from war.

We should consider a national summit with some voices other than the usual protagonists. Australians are handicapped when it comes to understanding refugees. We are an island; and some have an insular mentality. We tend to glorify battles, leading to a softer understanding of war, which is, in fact, brutal and brutalising without exception. Australians need to learn more about the misery of refugees and walk a mile in their shoes. So much of the debate occurs with opportunist politicians or indeed great champions from non-government organisations and the law. But we need the stories and views of the people themselves. In the debate, the Prime Minister may have indicated that her preferred location for a regional processing centre is in a country that is a signatory to the UN Convention but, apart from that, there seems little difference in her imitation of the ''tough'' stance of her predecessors. So the dark cloud still hangs over the nation.

Few leaders have demonstrated a deep understanding of the refugee situation. It is different from £10 Poms like Gillard's family and herself. Hard work will not necessarily get refugees what they need. I fear our Prime Minister, for all her abilities, has attacked the problem simplistically and in no better way than the opposition. It has marred her honeymoon: trying to win an election on the back of suffering refugees is an abomination. Loading It's time to get the politics out of it, to get rid of the dark cloud.

Natasha Stott Despoja is a former leader of the Australian Democrats.