A tough-talking Malcolm Turnbull has warned Australians can't be misty-eyed about asylum-seeker boat arrivals.
The prime minister dashed any hope refugees being held at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea have about being resettled in Australia.
"We cannot be misty-eyed about this. We have to be very clear and determined in our national purpose," he told reporters in Hobart on Thursday.
Mr Turnbull is adamant allowing the 850 men there to come to Australia would encourage people smugglers and risk drownings at sea.
"We must have secure borders and we do and we will, and they will remain so, as long as I am the prime minister of this country."
But the government still has no firm plan to deal with the hundreds of men now in limbo, following a decision by the PNG government to abide by a court ruling and close the centre.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who says the Australian government was prepared for such an event, has hinted the centre could operate as an open facility.
"(PNG) can do all of that and still be completely in sync with the requirements of their judicial system," he said.
The minister says there is also room for the group to be moved to Nauru, but there was still "some time" for the whole issue to be resolved in talks with PNG.
Labor, which created the latest offshore processing regime in 2013, accused Mr Dutton of setting a new benchmark in incompetence.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the government had been ignoring a "trainwreck" for months.
"It's a shambles," he told reporters in Hobart.
PNG says the centre won't be shut down immediately as it awaits discussions to start next week.
Its high commissioner to Australia says ultimately the decision about the fate of the asylum seekers rests with Canberra.
PNG's responsibility is only to process them.
"It's not for us to decide or urge Australia to take them on," Charles Lepani told ABC radio.
"We cannot force them to settle (in PNG)."
Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs says any stand-off between Australia and PNG could be resolved by both governments submitting to arbitration by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
"Australia can't force Papua New Guinea to hold people who were originally Australia's responsibility," she told ABC radio.
"But equally, for practical matters, it's very difficult for Papua New Guinea to force Australia to take these asylum seekers back."
The Greens say the whole saga is about fear-mongering and winning votes ahead of a July 2 election.
"Malcolm Turnbull should be better than this," immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young told reporters in Canberra.
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