LABOR'S CHEQUERED HISTORY ON ASYLUM SEEKER POLICY
1992: Paul Keating makes immigration detention mandatory for unauthorised arrivals.
2007-2008: Kevin Rudd ends the Howard government's "Pacific Solution", closing down the detention centre on Nauru and abolishing temporary protection visas in favour of giving refugees permanent residency.
2009: Rudd forced into an embarrassing back down following a month-long stand-off in Indonesia between Australian authorities and 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard Customs vessel Oceanic Viking. They're offered rapid resettlement.
2010: Rudd suspends processing new asylum-seeker claims from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka because of changing circumstances in both both countries.
2010: New PM Julia Gillard proposes processing asylum seekers in East Timor, but Dili doesn't want a bar of it.
2011: Gillard signs a people swap deal with Malaysia, which the High Court subsequently quashes. The coalition and the Greens block legislation to get around the court ruling.
2012: As boat arrivals spiral out of control, Gillard outsources policy making to an expert panel and subsequently introduces a "no advantage" principle for those arriving by boat.
2012: Gillard re-establishes immigration detention centres on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
2012: Julia Gillard excises the Australian mainland from migration zone.
2013: Rudd, back in charges, announces tough border protection measures that send all asylum seekers arriving by boat to Nauru and Manus Island and strips any found to be refugees of the opportunity of resettlement in Australia.
2015: After opposing boat turn backs since their instigation, Bill Shorten moves to put Labor on the same page as the coalition on the issue.
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