Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is prepared to fight for Labor to implement a boat turn back policy at this week's ALP national conference.
Mr Shorten believes Labor should turn back asylum seeker boats, admitting his party made mistakes on immigration policy when in government.
He says the option to turn back vessels carrying asylum seekers must be on the table to prevent drownings at sea and defeat people smugglers.
The opposition leader has until now remained on the fence on turn backs, an issue which has divided his party.
While revealing his new position on Wednesday, Mr Shorten admitted Labor made errors on asylum seeker policy when in government and conceded the coalition's policy appeared to be working.
"I think it's clear that the combination of regional resettlement, with offshore processing, and also the turn back policy, is defeating people smugglers," he told ABC television on Wednesday evening.
"It's not easy, though, because it involves the admission, I think, that mistakes were made when Labor was last in government."
A potential turn back policy will be debated at the ALP national conference later this week and Mr Shorten hopes his colleagues will back his new position.
Former immigration minister Scott Morrison - who now looks after social services - said Labor was "all talk on turn backs".
"The coalition's record on border protection and turn backs is proven. The people smugglers know it," he said on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young believes Labor's "capitulation" to Prime Minister Tony Abbott won't end well.
"Boat turn-backs are all about pushing refugees away, to let them die in someone else's waters," she wrote on Twitter.
Share
