Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says laws permanently banning refugees and asylum seekers who arriving by boat from entering Australia are in line with international laws.
The new laws would see anyone who arrived in Australia by boat from 2013 banned from ever entering the country, including on tourist and business visas.
Mr Dutton told ABC News the laws would not break Australia's international obligations in terms of refugee laws.
"We are absolutely confident in terms of the constitutionality and that we meet our international obligations," he said.
The Immigration Minister would retain the right to allow people into the country if they deem it to be in the public interest.
The laws will not apply to minors who arrived by boat.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson welcomed the proposed changes, telling Channel Seven, " think we need to make a very tough stance and put out a clear message: refugees are not welcome here".
However, human rights advocates say the proposed laws are "deliberately cruel to innocent people", human rights advocates say.
Human Rights Law Centre's director of legal advocacy, Daniel Webb, said the proposal would terrify people already living in the community and rip families apart.
"Those who are already here rebuilding their lives in our communities must be allowed to stay," he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.
"Those who've spent three years on a painful road to nowhere on Nauru and Manus should be brought back to safety in Australia."
People who need protection shouldn't be punished for seeking help, Mr Webb said.
"We need to open up safe pathways to protection, rather than just closing unsafe ways," he said.
The Migration Act will be amended to ensure that asylum seekers who try to come to Australia by boat are forbidden from the country for life, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Sunday.
The amendment will "prevent irregular maritime arrivals taken to a processing country for making a valid application for an Australian visa," including those found to be refugees.
It is expected to be passed in the next parliamentary sitting week and will also apply to those asylum seekers taken to offshore processing centres at Manus in PNG and Nauru since July 19, 2013.
