Labor believes it will be forced to turn asylum-seeker boats around within days if it forms government but critics insist they're not up to the job.
Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles says a newly elected Labor government would quickly find its boat policy tested by people smugglers seeking to resume their trade.
"I think it is very likely that within the first days of a Labor government, we would be put in a position of needing to turn a boat around," Mr Marles told ABC Radio on Monday.
It comes after opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese, who remains personally opposed to turn backs and voted against the policy at the ALP national conference, insisted Labor wouldn't need to turn any boats around thanks to its doubling of the humanitarian intake.
Labor has sought to brush off claims of disunity around the turn back policy after frontbenchers Tanya Plibersek and Penny Wong avoided personally voting on the proposal, instead handing their votes to a proxy.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott insists Labor is "dangerously divided" on border security and can't be trusted to maintain it.
"What the Labor Party did on the weekend is not conducive to confidence that any future Labor government would maintain the strong border protection policies that have been put in place," Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.
Retired Major General Jim Molan, who helped write the government's Operation Sovereign Borders policy, says Labor doesn't have the resolve necessary to make the policy work.
He says they're overly concerned with turn backs and offshore processing instead of focusing on the task of border control.
"I don't think that they have any idea of the importance of resolve in coming up with a policy and making that policy work," he told ABC TV.
Mr Marles said Labor's turn backs would work the same way as the current government's.
But he insists Labor would ensure its policies "pass muster" with the UN's refugee agency.
Labor would continue assessing asylum seekers at sea but would consider assessing people onshore before they're transferred to Nauru or Manus Island, he said.
"We would want the full suite of measures which are available to the government now," he said.
Mr Marles said finding a resolution for 2000 asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island would be Labor's core business but he ruled out bringing them to Australia.
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