Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he's still confident a coalition government would be able to limit asylum seeker boats to a rate of about three a year within its first term.
Mr Abbott on Friday announced the coalition's plan to deal with around 30,000 asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia under Labor but have not yet been assessed as refugees.
Under the plan, they will be processed faster and if found to be genuine refugees they will be offered only temporary protection visas (TPVs), which will be valid for three years.
"This is our country and we determine who comes here," Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne.
"If you want to stop the boats you've got to change the government. And if you can't stop the boats you're not capable of governing this country."
Mr Abbott reiterated the coalition would make a difference to the number of boats arriving from day one.
During the last years of the Howard government there was an average of only three boats a year, he said.
"I will regard myself as having succeeded very well if we can get back to a situation of having three boats a year," he said.
"Obviously our ideal is to have zero boats."
Pressed on how long it would take him to get down three boats a year, he said it would be "well into a term".
Mr Abbott also pledged to scrap Labor's plans to establish a new immigration detention centre in Singleton, in NSW.
It will use the $58 million earmarked for the centre to upgrade capacity on Nauru instead.
