Before the federal election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised Australia would seek to have a regional centre built in East Timor to house the influx of asylum seekers.
But opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the fact Labor had been unable to provide a timeframe for the centre's opening showed it wasn't going to be built soon.
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"Clearly this is a proposal which we are unlikely to see an outcome for in the life of this parliament," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.
Mr Morrison said the government could easily set up an asylum-seeker processing centre in Nauru if it wanted, but Ms
Gillard has so far rejected the idea.
"That's their decision, not to go ahead with a realistic option that can be immediately implemented," he said.
"They've chosen not to take that action, and they've chosen to just talk more."
Mr Morrison said the increase in asylum seeker flows to Australia was a direct result of Labor's lax policies.
"The challenge for government is not just to understand that they've got a problem, but to admit that they're the reason for the problem," he said.
"We've had 95 boats already in this calender year, now that just didn't happen out of the blue."
