Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are proving there are no depths to which they will not sink to persuade the Australian people they are the toughest in relation to asylum seekers. The demonising of asylum seekers continues apace.

The Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has tried to suggest they are now all economic refugees. If they are, they are sent back, and Carr knows that. He had no information which would have justified that comment. When the Gillard government stopped processing in August of last year, more than 90 per cent of those processed up to that point were genuine refugees.

Vietnamese refugees aboard the refugee boat Kien Giang in 1979. Credit:Fairfax Library

The fact remains that, however unpleasant the Australian government tries to be, it cannot match the terror from which those who are genuine refugees are fleeing. That remains the fundamental flaw in the policy of deterrence.

On his visit to Indonesia, Prime Minister Rudd emphasised the importance of a regional solution and welcomed the fact that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had announced Indonesia would chair a meeting to discuss regional solutions to the problem. That decision, to work through the so-called Bali process, did not last very long and then Rudd came out with his Nauru and Manus Island solution. I am advised he did so without a cabinet decision, certainly not a full cabinet decision.