The Coalition is calling on the government to immediately pull a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign on its new asylum seeker policy, arguing it is a "scandal" and a breach of the caretaker conventions during an election.
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Immigration Minister Tony Burke announced on Friday afternoon that the federal government would continue its advertising campaign in Australia, telling reporters that the campaign was needed to stop people smugglers using the federal election to convince asylum seekers that the government's policy stance had weakened.
Last month, Labor launched a three-pronged advertising campaign to promote its new policy, whereby if people arrive in Australia by boat and without a visa, then they will not be settled in Australia.
The advertising campaign includes ads in mainstream Australian media as well as ads targeted at specific language and community groups in Australia and an overseas campaign.
In letters earlier this week, the Coalition said it would agree to keep the ads going overseas but not in Australia.
Shadow attorney-general George Brandis called the government's decision an "unprecedented and flagrant breach of the caretaker conventions" and a "complete scandal" in a Friday afternoon press conference.
"This is a scandal," he said.
Senator Brandis said that if the advertisements were not withdrawn at once, then the ALP should pay for them.
Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the move was about "vote people" not "boat people".
Earlier, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said he expected criticism for the move but explained that people smugglers had in the past, used certain trigger points - such as the High Court overturning the Malaysia plan - to generate enthusiasm for a surge.
"I don't want the calling of an election to be the next trigger that people smugglers use to try to tell people, now's your last chance … I don't want there to be a situation where people are lied to and have their lives put at risk," he said.
He said the Australia-based campaign needed to continue because friends and contacts in Australia were an important source of information to people considering getting on boats.
Earlier on Friday, the Attorney-General and Special Minister of State Mark Dreyfus approved the continuation of the campaigns.
"Both [domestic and international] components are critical to conveying the message through diaspora communities to people considering using people smugglers to come to Australia," he said in a statement.
"It is in the interests of national security that this message be broadcast as widely as possible, particularly in the early stages of the new policy."
Mr Burke said advice had also been sought by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, which advises on caretaker conventions.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie described Labor's decision as "cynical" in a statement on Friday.
“Labor's decision to continue taxpayer-funded ads in the Australian media about their inhumane PNG asylum policy is hardly surprising," he said.
“Running these ads in Australia was always about trying to win votes. The line that ads are needed in Australian media to communicate with locals involved in people smuggling is nothing more than a flimsy excuse."
The Greens also slammed the ads as a "blatant rorting of tax-payer money" during the caretaker period, and said parliament should overhaul advertising rules.
“The government's 'national security' excuse for this extraordinary caretaker-mode advertising campaign is deeply cynical," Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“This isn't the case of a national emergency, it's a Labor emergency."
