The Australian Greens have labelled a recommendation to reopen asylum seeker processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea as a return to the "bad old days" of the Howard government.
Greens leader Christine Milne labelled most of the 22 recommendations from an expert panel as cruel and disappointing, and likened them to the so-called Pacific Solution of processing
illegal boat arrivals offshore.
She said recommendations from the panel, led by former defence force chief Angus Houston, took away people's human rights and offered cruelty to people most in need.
"That is the proposition that John Howard put forward," Senator Milne told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
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"It is the proposition that now (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott puts forward and it is the proposition that, it seems, the government will put forward.
The Greens would not be party to something that was cruel to people and caused them more pain than they had already suffered in their journey as refugees, Senator Milne said.
However, the Greens welcomed a recommendation to increase Australia's humanitarian intake from 13,750 places a year to 20,000.
