"The issue here for us today is to say to ourselves as one of the richest countries on Earth, why can't we use our leadership role in the region to genuinely lead?" ... Greens Leader Christine Milne.
PARLIAMENT'S failure to end the impasse on asylum-seeker policy will embolden people smugglers and result in many more deaths, says the MP who led the push to come up with a plan.
The West Australian Liberal Mal Washer said people-smuggling syndicates would have been monitoring debate in Australia and would be escalating their operations to beat any measures to deter asylum seekers from risking their lives.
Dr Washer hoped Parliament would keep sitting if the Senate failed to pass legislation allowing the government's Malaysian people-swap to proceed - ''and we just thrash it out and don't go home until it's over''.
That wish has proven to be misplaced, with politicians returning to their electorates last night and today for a six-week winter recess.
''We're just going to have more people drown in the panic to get more on boats while we equivocate,'' Dr Washer told the Herald yesterday. ''We're going to see an even bigger push unless we get something sorted out.''
His sentiments were echoed by a researcher at the University of Indonesia, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti.
Ms Pudjiastuti, who is studying the trade in asylum seekers, said the ''politics in Australia is a problem'' because it failed to send firm signals to those who wanted to travel to the country. ''And this kind of situation is always well used by people smugglers. They know the loopholes,'' she said.
However, Indonesia was not blameless either, she added. It should review its policy of giving visas on arrival at the airport to people from countries such as Iran, who often then become asylum seekers in Australia.
Ms Pudjiastuti said law enforcement operations against people smugglers in either Indonesia or Australia were unlikely to disrupt the networks, because these groups worked in a hierarchy, where the ''godfather'' was somewhere else.
She said the Bali Process, which was designed to provide a forum for countries in the region to deliberate these issues, was a good one, but was not leading to greater enforcement.
''The countries involved in [the] Bali Process are mostly driven by their own spirit of national sovereignty rather than regional spirit,'' Ms Pudjiastuti said.
Dr Washer also warned there was no prospect of securing a regional solution ''if we can't sort ourselves out''.
Ms Pudjiastuti also said relations between the two countries had been ''disturbed'' because ''Australia granted asylum to a people smuggler, and at the same time jailed Indonesian children in adult prisons''.
The comments echo those earlier this week by Indonesian MP Tubagus Hasanudin, the deputy head of the parliamentary committee which oversees defence, intelligence, information and foreign affairs, who urged Australia to stop ''shouting'' at Indonesia.
A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Minister, Marty Natalegawa, yesterday said Indonesia was ''working closely'' with Australia on the problem.
The minister would not be drawn on domestic politics in Australia, saying: ''It's obviously something that only the countries involved can deal with - the countries of origin, transit and destination.''
In Vietnam yesterday, a court jailed six people smugglers for trafficking more than a hundred migrants by boat to Australia between May 2010 and April 2011, charging each passenger $7050.
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