Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has laid down three criteria he says are vital for dealing with the issue of asylum seekers and people smuggling.
Mr Rudd is expected to soon reveal details of Labor's new asylum policy to deal with the growing number of asylum seekers arriving by boat and the increasing numbers of those losing their lives at sea.
He says the government is working through the changes methodically but three things are clearly needed as part of a solution to the problem.
"On our policies we are looking at this right now. Globally in terms of the effectiveness of the refugees convention. We are looking at it regionally in terms of our cooperation with our regional states in South East Asia and the South West Pacific hence my visit to Indonesia. Thirdly we need to also act on the challenge that we face in the refugee determination processes for our country."
Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare admits the asylum seeker issue has been "poisoned by politics", with a second boat tragedy in a week claiming four lives.
A boat capsized on Tuesday night while under the escort of two navy vessels en route to Christmas Island.
The bodies of two men and two women, all thought to be in their 20s and 30s, were recovered from the water and a further 144 people were rescued.
Nineteen children, including infants, were believed to have been on the boat.
The latest deaths come after the weekend drowning of a baby boy who was on a vessel swamped by high seas as it struggled toward the Australian coastline.
Mr Clare called on all sides of politics to work together to "fix this God-awful problem".
"This is a wretchedly difficult area and it's been poisoned by politics," he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said he was more than happy to put partisanship aside and support Labor in making the changes needed to stop the boats.
"Bring back the parliament, let's debate this issue and let's make the changes now to stop the boats," he told reporters in Mackay.
Mr Clare said the government must be given the powers it needs to stop the boats.
"If we can all agree to that, then it will go a long way to stopping events like last night happening again," he said.
"It's a sad fact that we've been denied that in the past by the Liberal Party and by the Greens."
The High Court blocked the Gillard government's Malaysian people-swap deal in 2011, under which Australia would have sent 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 processed refugees.
Labor tried to resurrect it through parliament but could not win enough support.
The latest vessel was first spotted on Monday afternoon by a patrol aircraft.
A navy boat located it in the early hours of Tuesday morning but didn't detect any signs of distress.
Naval officers tried to board the ship that afternoon but couldn't due to rough sea conditions and the ship's large size.
Instead, they decided to escort it to Christmas Island.
Around four hours after the escort began, the boat started to lean, people jumped into the water and the boat capsized.
Australia's border protection commander Rear Admiral David Johnston said authorities do not have a lawful reason to board a boat particularly when there is no request for assistance.
"Also we know that any boarding event that you conduct particularly at night and in the weather conditions that were experienced are very dangerous," he told reporters.
Conditions during the rescue operations were "very difficult" with swells of up to four metres.
Greens Leader Christine Milne said the latest tragedy was proof that deterrence policies don't work.
"It doesn't matter how hard you make it at this end, you are not going to change the circumstances from which people are running away," she told reporters in Sydney.
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