No boats policy firm amid refugee crisis

The federal government won't be easing its no boats policy in the face of the Southeast Asia asylum seeker crisis, frontbencher Christopher Pyne says.

Refugees hoping to "win the lotto of life" and live in Australia must come through the front door, the federal government says.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne says Australia won't change its policy by resettling thousands of Rohingya refugees stranded at sea amid the Southeast Asia asylum seeker crisis.

"They have to go through the same process as everyone else," he told the Nine Network.

"We can't allow open slather on our borders because that will take us back to the chaos that occurred under the Gillard and Rudd regimes."