The Rudd government's new asylum seeker policy is a move in the right direction but is fraught with risks and uncertainty, according to former foreign minister Alexander Downer.
The Howard government minister says while the Papua New Guinea solution "is better than the nothing it replaces", it would have been better for the deal to have been done with Indonesia.
"The simplest deal of all would be to agree with the Indonesians that we will fly back every single person who arrives here by boat from their country," Mr Downer said on Monday in his column in The Advertiser.
"In exchange, we will accept on a one-for-one basis UN approved refugees in Indonesia."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that all asylum seekers arriving by boat will be transferred to PNG for processing.
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If found to be asylum seekers, they will be settled in PNG not Australia. If not found to be asylum seekers, they will be returned to their home country or a third country.
While Mr Downer described PNG as a "wonderful country", he said its problems included an inefficient bureaucracy, corruption, crime and "notoriously volatile" politics.
He also said it was odd that the PNG prime minister had not confirmed Mr Rudd's statement that all asylum seekers who arrive by boat will end up in PNG.
"My guess is, the PNG prime minister has told Mr Rudd he will only accept a limited number but they've both agreed not to announce that. Frankly, this is a dangerous play."
Mr Downer also referred to the prospect of social disharmony caused by the influx of Middle East migrants in a deeply Christian country dominated by the indigenous Melanesian population.
