In a press conference in Sydney on Saturday, opposition leader Tony Abbott said asylum seekers believed to have destroyed their documents before arriving in Australia will earn a presumption against refugee status under a coalition government.
"Everyone who comes to Indonesia from Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan normally comes by plane, Mr Abbott said.
"So the vast majority of people have had documents before they got on the boats."
But Refugee Action Coalition Sydney spokesman Ian Rintoul said the comments were misleading.
"The issue of documentation is not as straight forward as the opposition is making out," he told AAP.
Mr Rintoul said many asylum seekers travelled by fake passports to Indonesia, which they destroyed on arrival in order to prevent any possible criminal proceedings.
Others destroyed valid passports in order to avoid being deported by the Indonesian government, he said.
"They may not have passports but they have other documentation, such as driver's licenses.
"People want to be identified because they can't be processed in Australia unless they are identified."
"It (the announcement) is all about the coalition painting a picture that a lot of people are trying to take advantage of Australia.
"There is no indication that this is the case.
"It is not easy to get refugee status in Australia."
He also rejected moves to review approvals of refugees and the establishment of a new integrity commissioner to audit all refugee decisions.
"This would just create another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy," he said.
Meanwhile, the federal government says the opposition is rehashing old policy.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen was quick to point out that opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison stated in late 2011 that it was coalition policy to presume against refugee status "where we reasonably form the view that someone has thrown away their documentation".
Indeed, Mr Morrison made the same point in April 2010, four months before the last federal election.
"They (the opposition) should stop passing off old policies as new ones," Mr Bowen said in a statement.
"Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison should quit the cheap political stunts and join with the government to pass legislation enabling offshore processing."
Labor wants to process asylum seekers arriving by boat in Malaysia but needs the opposition's help to make the plan lawful.
The coalition is refusing to pass the required legislation because it says potential refugees should be assessed on Nauru. It argues legal changes aren't required for that approach.
Mr Bowen on Saturday said the opposition's plans for more reviews would introduce another layer of bureaucracy "which would almost certainly be judicially reviewable, meaning more asylum claims will be tied up in the courts".
The immigration minister said Australia already had a robust process for assessing asylum seeker claims under the UN refugee convention with each claim judged on a case-by-case basis.
