Malcolm Turnbull says New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 Manus Island detainees has helped the people smuggling trade.
He says smugglers use the offer, which Australia has rejected, to give false hope, with Border Force authorities having recently intercepted a number of boats who planned to go to New Zealand.
Mr Turnbull also took a swipe at the federal opposition, saying their rejection of the government's resettlement policy is worsening the situation.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten hit back at that accusation, and launched his own attack on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
"If you follow Mr Dutton's logic - the only way to deter people from people smuggling is keeping them indefinitely for the rest of their lives in settlements on Manus and Nauru - I don't even think he believes that. Labour's very clear: we do support stopping the people smugglers, we don't support bringing people who come by boat and people smugglers to Australia. But that doesn’t mean we have to keep them indefinitely," Mr Shorten said.
The comments come as flights carrying 40 asylum seekers from Manus Island left on Tuesday (January 23) for resettlement in the United States, under a deal struck with former U-S president, Barack Obama.
Fifty four detainees from Nauru and Papua New Guinea were resettled under the same arrangement last year.
Amy Frew is a Lawyer at the Australian Human Rights Law Centre. She has told SBS those leaving Manus Island, some after nearly five difficult years in detention, have found hope again.
