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PM not going to keep boat promises: Burke

Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke says the coalition's boat buyback scheme was stupid and offensive and won't ever happen.

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2 min read

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Source: AAP


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Labor is challenging Tony Abbott to admit he won't implement a number of key planks of his asylum seeker policy, promised during the election campaign.

Mr Abbott has wound up his first trip to Indonesia as prime minister, where he discussed a stronger bilateral framework for dealing with asylum seekers with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The prime minister said "everything was on the table" during the talks and the government would work with Indonesia, but he remained 100 per cent committed to the policies he took to the election.

Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said Mr Abbott couldn't have it both ways, because his pledge to turn around asylum seeker boats and buy fishing vessels had offended Indonesia.

"Those issues have been made patently clear that they consider them breaches of their sovereignty," Mr Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

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It was a "no brainer" that the coalition's plan to buy Indonesian fishing vessels in a bid to disrupt people smuggling operations was never going to happen, he added.

Mr Burke said the policy had simply offended Indonesia and been viewed as stupid back home, and Mr Abbott now needed to level with the Australian people.

"He just needs to come clean and acknowledge it's an election commitment that he doesn't intend to keep," Mr Burke said.


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