Tony Abbott has described Labor as “dangerously divided” on asylum-seeker policy, and insisted the party cannot be trusted with border security.

Speaking to reporters in Sydney on Monday, the prime minister seized on the division within the Labor Party, which culminated in a weekend vote on asylum-seeker policy.

The prime minister said division over asylum-seeker boat turn-backs at the ALP national conference showed Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was at odds with three senior colleagues – Anthony Albanese, Tanya Pilbersek and Penny Wong – over the policy.

“What the Labor Party did on the weekend is not conducive to confidence that any future Labor government would maintain the strong border protection policies that have been put in place,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

Bill Shorten was at odds with his deputy Tanya Pilbersek and Penny Wong in the senate. Photo: AAP

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Referring to the number of boat arrivals under the Rudd government, Mr Abbott expressed his distrust in any future Labor government’s border security policy.

“We had 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat on Labor’s watch,” Mr Abbott said.

“Tragically we had more than 1,000 deaths at sea on Labor’s watch. You just can’t trust the Labor Party when it comes to border security.

The vote over the weekend decided that, if elected, Labor will have the power to turn back asylum-seeker boats when in government.

Tanya Pilbersek and Penny Wong, both personally opposed to a turn-back strategy, sent proxies to vote in support of Bill Shorten’s policy backflip, while Anthony Albanese voted against turn-backs in person.

During the vote on Saturday, motions put forward by the Labor left to close detention centres and avoid turn-backs were easily defeated.

While Mr Shorten’s motion to allow the possibility of turn-backs was successful, so were a number of new humanitarian-based policies, including the removal of temporary protection visas which work to deny legitimate refugees permanent residency and a commitment to double Australia’s asylum-seeker intake by 2025.

Labor decided to continue processing asylum-seekers offshore in Nauru and Manus Island, but committed to improving the conditions of the detention centres.

If elected, Labor said it was also reinstate the UN Refugees Convention in the Migration Act, removed under the current government, and work to improve the conditions of asylum seekers within our region.

– With AAP