Dutton rejects NZ offer to resettle boat

Allowing New Zealand to resettle 150 asylum seekers now on Nauru would provide people smugglers with an incentive, the federal government says.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has declared war on outlaw motorcycle gangs. (AAP)

Australia has rejected an offer from New Zealand to resettle 150 asylum seekers now on Nauru.

Accepting the offer - initially made to the Gillard government in 2013 - would only give people smugglers an incentive to entice asylum seekers, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said.

"There are 14,000 in Indonesia now who will get on boats today. There are tens of thousands of people who could follow them up through Malaysia, through other parts," he told reporters in Canberra on Monday.