The federal government has ridiculed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's plan to use taxpayer's money to buy decrepit boats from their Indonesian owners to stop them falling into the hands of people smugglers.
Labor is so confident the plan is dud it even risked comparing it to the government's own failed "cash for clunkers" scheme.
The boat buyback is part of a new $420 million regional deterrence policy Mr Abbott has added to the coalition's arsenal of options to "cut off" the people smuggling trade if it wins government.
Under the plan announced by Mr Abbott in Darwin on Friday there will be funding of $67 million to increase the presence of Australian Federal Police in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Almost another $100 million will be spent to boost the aerial surveillance and search and rescue capacity of Indonesian authorities and $198 million to boost interception and transfer operations.
A so-called $20 million community engagement program will pay and equip Indonesian village "wardens" to provide intelligence about people smugglers and there may also be bounty payments for information leading to a conviction or major disruptions.
Part of $20 million will also be used for the capped boat buyback scheme to encourage Indonesian boat owners to sell their decrepit and unsafe boats to government official rather than smugglers.
Mr Abbott did not say how much would be paid for each boat.
"It's much better and much more sensible to spend a few thousand dollars in Indonesia, than to spend $12 million processing the people who ultimately arrive here," he told reporters.
"It is a commonsense measure that will give our people, working in cooperation with the Indonesian authorities, more to cut off this evil trade at source."
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten labelled it a "sea-going version of cash-for-clunkers".
Under prime minister Julia Gillard, the government offered car owners up to $4,500 to trade in their old gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient models before scrapping it in the face of severe criticism.
"This is crazy - the opposition are getting desperate," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.
"Wait until the news gets out throughout South-East Asia that if you've got a leaky unsafe boat that the Australian taxpayer is going to buy it off you."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the "interesting policy" was economically irresponsible.
"Mr Abbott's plan to have ... a three-star general sitting at the end of a jetty with a chequebook to buy back fishing boats in Indonesia is about as irresponsible as his plan for a paid parental leave scheme which gives $75,000 to millionaires," he told reporters in western Sydney.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke accused the coalition of not consulting with other countries on its plan to deploy more AFP officers offshore.
He also dubbed the boats buyback a "mad" idea.
"Indonesia is an archipelago, Indonesia has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"We are talking about a buyback scheme in a market of three quarters of a million boats.
"If you were to do it, I have no doubt at all it would be great for the ship building industry of Indonesia."
