Labor will vote against the Turnbull government's lifetime ban on refugees and asylum seekers who arrive by boat from entering Australia, casting doubt on whether the controversial plan can pass the Parliament.
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The party's caucus meeting on Tuesday voted unanimously to oppose the legislation, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten calling the government's bluff and describing existing tough border protection laws as adequate to stop people smuggling.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Australia risked 14,000 people coming from Indonesia and thousands more refugees and asylum seekers arriving from as far as Europe.
"All of the intelligence indicates that if people see the green light to get to Australia again, if those 14,000 hopped onto boats, or even 400 of them hopped onto boats, and successfully arrived here, there would be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people coming from Europe, making a trek into Jakarta or into Kuala Lumpur, other markets, to get onto boats to come here," he said.
With speculation a third country deal to resettle about 1800 offshore immigration detainees is in the works, Labor said the government had offered no evidence a lifetime ban was required as part of any new plan.
The Senate crossbench will decide the fate of the bill, which would stop anyone currently held on Manus Island or Nauru from travelling to Australia on a tourist or business visa after being resettled.
Ministerial discretion would apply to the ban, and children under 18 in July 2013 would be exempt.
In an Essential Poll on Tuesday, 56 per cent of respondent approved of the plan, while 29 per cent were opposed.
Asked about the treatment of asylum seekers, 37 per cent said the government was taking the right approach, compared with 24 per cent who said it was too soft and 23 per cent who said it was too tough.
Mr Shorten said his reaction to the lifetime ban for anyone who arrived by boat after July 2013 was to say, "You've got to be kidding me."
The government has indicated it won't support any amendments to the bill, stopping Labor from considering any compromise.
"What's important to me is defeating the people smugglers and not keeping people in indefinite detention," Mr Shorten said.
"It's a desperate measure by a desperate government aping One Nation."
The Greens remain opposed to the plan, while crossbench powerbroker Nick Xenophon said his party would meet to discuss the legislation.
The government wanted the bill to pass the Senate before Parliament rises on December 1.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Coalition joint party room meeting on Tuesday that Australia should be proud of its history as a "migration nation".
He said public support for Australia's immigration system depended on confidence that authorities were in control of the country's borders.
Mr Dutton blamed the former Labor government for a surge in the number of asylum seeker boats arriving in Australia. He said the latest moves were a matter of national security.
"This government is not going to preside over a re-emergence of boat arrivals, because we are not going to allow those 17 detention centres to be reopened," he said.
"We are not going to allow the 2000 children in detention, a legacy we inherited when we came to government. We've got those 2000 children out of detention.
"Most importantly, we are not going to allow the deaths at sea of innocent men, women and children."
