Labor’s Right is mounting a push to have the party adopt the hardline Abbott government policy of boat turn-backs, setting the scene for a brawl at Labor’s National Conference in late July.

Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon told Sky News the return to offshore processing saw boat flows drop about 90 per cent in the latter years of Labor’s term in government, but said he believed turn-backs should be part of the policy toolkit.

“I think that there’s a powerful argument that you need a whole range of tools to ensure that the flows don’t begin again,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

• Stopping the boats – it’s easier said than done
• Boat allegedly paid to turn back ‘stopped in international waters’
• Navy turns back asylum seekers, boat hits reef

“Now, one of those tools currently is boat turn-backs. Personally I believe turn-backs will remain part of Labor policy.”

The view is likely to be hotly disputed by much of the party’s Left, which wants the existing offshore detention policy dismantled.

Under former prime minister Kevin Rudd, Labor unwound the tough Howard-era Pacific Solution.

That saw asylum seeker boat arrivals between 2002-2006 total 13 boats carrying 140 people. After Labor dumped offshore detention, from 2007 to 2013, 749 boats arrived carrying 44,465 asylum seekers.

That stark reality, and the public backlash, saw Labor gradually rebuild every brick in the Pacific Solution wall, reopening offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

But it stopped short of turning asylum seeker boats back at sea, saying it was not safe and would damage relations with Indonesia.

That was a risk the Abbott government was prepared to take. Since Operation Sovereign Borders, which includes pushing boats back to Indonesia, began in 2013 there has been one confirmed boat arrival with 157 people on board.

Many in the Parliamentary Labor Party, including those in the Left, are convinced that the party has to accept boat turn-backs, or be badly exposed to an Abbott Government attack on border protection in the run-up to next year’s election.

That puts much of Parliamentary wing of the party at odds with much of the rank and file and the union movement.

The party is trapped in an almost impossible position: not to adopt the Government’s hard line will see it lose votes on the Right, and adopting it will see it bleed votes to the Greens.

Turn-backs never part of Labor’s policy: Left faction member

Members of Labor’s Left faction said Mr Fitzgibbon’s comments were disappointing and ill-considered.

Many expressed concerns about boat turn-backs, saying the policy was unsafe and damaged the relationship with Indonesia.

Concerns were also raised about Mr Fitzgibbon’s intervention at this time, described as not constructive and not in the right spirit of how the debate should be conducted.

Left faction member, WA Senator Sue Lines, said Mr Fitzgibbon was welcome to express his view, but she did not expect it to be endorsed by conference delegates.

“Boat turn-backs have never been part of Labor’s policy and they’re not currently in the current document,” she said.

“So Joel’s obviously entitled to say what he thinks and agitate for his position, but ultimately the delegates at the national conference will make the decision.

“There’s always manoeuvring around policy. It’s a conference, it’s the democratic process of the party where delegates from all over the country will come together and decide Labor’s policy.

“We’ve already had a very thorough process leading up to the draft policy going out. Joel sat on that policy committee as have all of our shadows and rank and file members of the ALP.

“So what I would think is that we’ve got at the moment is a document that’s probably mostly agreed.”

The same view is not held by all Left faction members, with one senior member endorsing Mr Fitzgibbon’s comments.

‘Bad policy, bad politics’, Greens say

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said it was a big mistake for Labor to mirror everything the Government did on border protection.

“I think it’s bad policy and I also think it’s bad politics,” he said.

“People are looking to the Opposition to be an opposition, to speak out against some of these policies that put people’s lives at further risk. I think the idea of turning boats around on the high seas is irresponsible.”

“I think it’s bad policy and I also think it’s bad politics,” says Richard Di Natale. Photo: AAP

When asked if boat turn-backs should be part of Labor’s border protection regime, the party’s newly installed national president, Mark Butler, did not disavow it.

“Labor is committed to making sure that the boat passageway between Java and Australia remains closed, that boats that undertake very dangerous journeys with desperate people on board simply don’t take place anymore,” he said.

Pressed on whether he supported the idea of turn-backs, Mr Butler said the party was developing its policies and credited offshore processing with stopping the boats.

“Those regional resettlement arrangements, particularly with Papua New Guinea and Nauru, led to an immediate reduction by more than 90 per cent in boat arrivals to Australia,” he said.

But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor would still be weak on border protection even if it adopted the turn-back policy.

“In the run-up to the Labor Party conference, there will be some cobbled-together program, some cobbled-together policy from the Labor Party on boats, which will unravel at the next election,” Mr Dutton said.

He added that senior Labor figures, such as Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek, opposed boat turn-backs, and challenged Labor leader Bill Shorten to outline a clear policy

“Mr Shorten needs to explain why the frontbench of his party is all over the place when it comes to boats,” he said.

“My very strong belief is that if Mr Shorten is elected at the next election, Labor will not follow through with their commitment that they’ll make at conference.”

-ABC