Kevin Rudd confidant Father Frank Brennan says it's 'un-Australian' to ban asylum seekers on bridging visas from working

Father Frank Brennan, who has been close to Mr Rudd for 20 years and has told the government people should be flown back to Indonesia for processing, called the policy a "beat up."

Faced with more than 20,000 asylum seekers it has failed to process since August, the government has revealed it will first assess the refugee claims of asylum seekers who have arrived with their passports or identity papers and leave those who dump their papers to last.

"The talk about putting people at the back of the queue God help us, it's just a beat up," Fr Brennan told Meet the Press.

Father Frank Brennan seen her with Kevin Rudd arrives with his sons Nicholas and Marcus says asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas should be allowed to work.

"Obviously where you have got a big backlog people who have already got documents, of course you will be able to process them quickly those who don't have documents you will still have to wait."

He also accused the government of being "un Australian" for refusing to give asylum seekers in the community on bridging visas work rights under the "no advantage" test which was designed to make asylum seekers wait in the community for as long as they would if they had stayed in an overseas refugee camp.

"We have a mess in Australia at the moment precisely because after the Houston panel there was the so called no advantage test and part of that has been people have been in the community without being processed since last August and they don't have work rights," he said.

"We all know it is very un-Australian to put people in the community where they don't have adequate welfare or no work rights so we have got to get back to a system where once you're in the community we treat you decently."

While the government has been attacking the Coalition for not agreeing to a change to the Migration Act to allow the Malaysia people swap deal to proceed after the Houston panel said it should be retained, Fr Brennan has drawn attention to criticism of the deal raised by the expert panel.

The panel said more safeguards were needed before a change in the law should be attempted however the government has been unable to reach agreement with Malaysia for better protections.

Fr Brennan has recommended developing a similar deal with Indonesia to fly boat arrivals back for processing there by the UNHCR.

"Malaysia took a long time for them to negotiate but then the Houston panel looked at and said well, it's not adequate and there are more safeguards that are needed," he said.

"So the good thing about Houston is we have now got a good baseline there but to negotiate those baselines with Malaysia or Indonesia would take a long time."

He said anyone thinking there was an immediate fix is dreaming and he accused the Coalition of relying on slogans.

Fr Brennan said he believed Mr Rudd had time to consider his first approach as Prime Minister and now knew he had to be consultative and that "you can't just have young people around you as advisers."

Meanwhile, Treasurer Chris Bowen told Sky Agenda today the government had been right to apologise for its failed pink batt ceiling insulation program which was linked to four deaths.

His comments came after a Queensland coroner found the risks associated with the rushed scheme should have been foreseen.

###