Asylum seekers should be seen as individual human beings and not anonymous groups, Christmas Island administrator Jon Stanhope has said, as the second boat disaster in a week led to more asylum seeker deaths.
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In the latest tragedy, four asylum seekers are dead after a boat carrying about 150 people sank north of Christmas Island as rescuers were trying to assist it on Tuesday.
The former ACT chief minister, who has been Christmas Island's administrator since last October pointed to the death of a one-year-old in a boat sinking on Friday, who has not been publicly named, saying he wished the child had been identified.
''I sometimes wish that perhaps some of the debate, some of the commentary ... that each of us would perhaps look at asylum seekers not as a bulk anonymous grouping of individuals, but as individual human beings that have hopes and aspirations and dreams and feel the same pain and suffer the same grief as each of us,'' he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
''We have a one-year-old baby in our mortuary, the child of an asylum seeker family. I wished we named [him] ... I wish we humanised them. I wish we gave them that respect in death.''
Mr Stanhope said that about 100 people were arriving a day on the island. ''The arrivals are constant,'' he said.
'A national emergency'
On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott described the latest disaster as a tragedy, calling the situation with boat arrivals as a ''national emergency''.
''The only way to stop the deaths is to stop the boats,'' he said while in Mackay before calling on Mr Rudd to support the Coalition's policies.
''I say to Mr Rudd, face the fact that you got it wrong. Be man enough to admit that you got it wrong,'' Mr Abbott said, arguing that Mr Rudd ''caused this problem'' when he dismantled the Howard-era Pacific Solution in 2008.
Mr Abbott said he was happy to support Mr Rudd in legislating changes to asylum seeker policy - if Mr Rudd supported Mr Abbott's stance.
''I'm more than happy to put partisanship aside and support the Prime Minister making the changes that are necessary to stop the boats,'' he said, specifying this meant reintroducing temporary protection visas, ''rigorous'' offshore processing, ''a clear willingness to turn boats around and actually turning boats around where it is safe to do so'' and a ''much better'' relationship with Indonesia.
Mr Abbott repeated his attack on Mr Rudd that he was not only the ''best friend the people smugglers have ever had'' but was also their ''travel agent''.
''It's not good enough, Prime Minister. It's just not good enough. This is a national emergency. It's got to be addressed now. I call on you to stop talking and put in place the real action that's necessary to truly make a difference here.''
Latest tragedy
A dramatic navy rescue operation was sparked after a vessel capsized on Tuesday about 70 nautical miles off the remote island, flinging a large number of people into the sea.
Two navy ships pulled 144 people alive from the water, but Customs and Border Protection confirmed four bodies were also recovered during the operation.
This comes just days after a baby boy drowned and eight others are missing presumed dead after a boat carrying about 100 people sank north of Christmas Island on Friday.
Mr Stanhope said that the sea conditions had continued to be rough, despite the fact it was officially dry season.
He said that people on the island had been conscious of the ''perils that those on the sea on days like today would be facing''.
''I think at one level, tragically, some of us weren't necessarily particularly surprised that another boat had capsized,'' he said of the latest asylum tragedy.
Mr Stanhope said that Christmas Island had increased its mortuary facilities to accommodate about 50 bodies, up from five in the past year.
''That's a statement in itself,'' he said.
Rudd on asylum seekers
On Tuesday night at a community cabinet meeting in Rockhampton, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took at question from Ian Higgins, who travelled from Mornington in Victoria to Queensland to ask a question.
''Can't we be a bit more compassionate to the refugees?'' Mr Higgins asked, to the loud applause of the audience.
Mr Rudd told the community cabinet that the asylum seeker issue was a ''tough challenge for Australia. I just want to level with all of you.''
He said that Australia's policy settings needed to change and that he had recently travelled to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to discuss the issue with leaders there.
''Australians are essentially a warm-hearted, kind people who want to help people. That's my experience,'' he said.
''At the same time, Australians want to have the continuation of an orderly migration system.''
With AAP
