A Coalition government would appoint a senior miltary commander to lead a joint agency taskforce responsible for dealing with people smugglers and border protection.
Amanda Cavill has the details.
Under the Coalition's new proposal, named Operation Sovereign Borders, a joint agency taskforce commander would be appointed by the Chief of the Defence Force and would report directly to the Immigration Minister.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the operation would begin within 100 days of the Coalition taking government.
He says it would involve 12 government agencies - including the intelligence agencies - with direct involvement in border security.
"The crisis on our borders has become a national emergency. We've had almost 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat. We've had almost 800 illegal boats. We've had 1,000 or more deaths at sea. We've had ten billion dollars plus in border protection blow-outs. The problem is getting worse. This government can't solve it. The Coalition will solve it. But it's important not just to have the right policies. You have got to have the right implementation as well."
Mr Abbott also says within its first 100 days in office, a Coalition government would also issue the protocols to turn back asylum-seeker boats when safe and reintroduce Temporary Protection Visas.
He says a Coalition government would also quickly increase capacity at overseas processing centres, and lease and deploy additional vessels so that border protection patrol vessels can be relieved of passenger transfers.
Retired Major General Jim Molan has endorsed the announcement, saying it sets the stage for success.
He says a coordinated taskforce would be much better equipped to deal with all the tasks that need to be performed if asylum-seeker boats are to be stopped.
"Disrupt, deter, detain, intercept, transfer, assess, return, remove and resettle. Conducted humanely, legally by military, police, customs, officials, intelligence, diplomats, and many many others. Because as we all know so tragically this is about life and death. This is high-level, cross-agency and whole-of-government business. If you don't have an appropriate response, you don't have a policy."
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says a single chain of command would end the fragmented response to the issue.
"It is about a clear mission. It is about a clear line of command and chain of command that must be followed to manage the risk and to ensure the implementation and it has a clear policy basis. We have learnt from Labor's failures. We know the change that needs to be made and what that change is to put this operational command structure in place which means we can respond, we can move, we can adapt and we can deploy. This will stop the boats."
The Coalition announcement follows the release of Labor's new hardline policy to try to stop the flow of asylum-seeker boats.
Under the Rudd government's deal with Papua New Guinea, people arriving by boat will be taken to Manus Island for processing and if their refugee status is approved, resettled in PNG - with no prospect of resettlement in Australia.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dismissed Mr Abbott's policy.
"He's got a new three-word slogan. I think it's called operation something or other. Operation Sovereign Border or something. So we have now got two three word slogans. Stop the Boats and Operation something or other."
Mr Abbott says he's informed the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia and the Head of the Defence Force of the policy as a matter of courtesy.
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