Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not ruled out the use of force by Australian officials against a group of asylum seekers who are refusing to leave a Customs ship, saying the Government is dealing with a "complex and difficult situation".
As the 78 asylum seekers spend their 10th day on board the Oceanic Viking off the coast of Indonesia, Mr Rudd has faced a barrage of questions in Parliament from the Opposition over the stand-off.
Despite a deal made by Mr Rudd and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for Indonesia to take the group last week they are yet to leave the ship and local officials are resisting efforts to bring them ashore.
With the issue dominating Question Time this week, Mr Rudd was repeatedly asked by the Opposition to detail his involvement in continuing developments but Mr Rudd would not elaborate on any discussions which he said were of a "diplomatic nature".
When asked whether Australian officials could use force against the asylum seekers, Mr Rudd replied: "We are dealing with a complex and difficult and challenging set of circumstances."
"I have confidence that our men and women who are working in these professional agencies will discharge their professional responsibilities with the greatest degree of skill and tact and humanity that they can, but this is a very difficult situation," he added.
The asylum seekers are due to be taken to a detention centre on the island of Bintan, but Mr Rudd says Indonesian authorities will not insist on locking up the women and children of the group.
"I'm advised by the Indonesian authorities that women and children will be offered the option of staying in a house near the Tanjun Pinang detention facility," he said.
The Opposition insists the Government's change in border protection policy is responsible for a recent surge in boat arrivals and Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the Government has "outsourced" the country's refugee program to people smugglers.
"Not one question about the Oceanic Viking has been answered other than with a contemptuous, savage and sneering attack on the Opposition," he said.
"The truth is that this debacle is a disaster entirely of the Government's own making."
Mr Rudd also also faced criticism from within his own ranks with Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes saying the asylum seekers should be brought to Christmas Island.
"These are 78 people - can anyone really run any serious argument that this poses any threat to us whatsoever?" Mr Howes asked.
"The Prime Minister ... has the opportunity to show leadership and actually inject some common sense and get a bit of the heat and rhetoric out of this debate."
O.P.C. by: Emma Rodgers
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