Labor leader Bill Shorten has accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of "insulting the intelligence" of Australians by refusing to offer any assistance to the thousands of asylum seekers fleeing danger and persecution.
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Mr Abbott has taken a hardline stance against the plight of up to 7,000 people who have fled Myanmar and Bangladesh by boat, saying "nope, nope, nope" when asked on Thursday if Australia would respond to the crisis by resettling some refugees.
The group includes members of the Rohingya minority group in Myanmar, which the International Crisis Group recently described as "progressively marginalised from social and political life".
Mr Abbott expanded on his comments on Friday and said he would "say or do nothing" that would encourage people to get into boats.
"Any suggestion that there is some kind of special resettlement program here in Australia for people taking to the sea in boats just encourages people smuggling," he said in Tasmania.
"It would be utterly irresponsible of me or anyone to suggest for a second that we will reward people for doing something so dangerous."
Mr Shorten, speaking from Melbourne just as Mr Abbott finished his press conference, said thousands of migrants were making a "terrible choice" because they realised "they're not safe in their own homes".
"Tony Abbott is insulting the intelligence of the Australian people when he says on the one hand, it's not Australia's problem at all and [to] leave it to the government of Myanmar to sort out," he said.
"If the government of Myanmar could sort these issues out, people wouldn't be fleeing.
"On the other hand, Tony Abbott [gives the impression] the only alternative is to resettle all these people in Australia.
"That's not true and that's not necessary."
Mr Shorten said Australia should work with its countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia "who are getting these people, to see what we can do to help".
"Tony Abbott shouldn't dumb down the issue to saying either we take these people or we do nothing," he said.
"Australia's a smarter, more generous nation."
The Indonesian government has rebuked Australia for refusing to resettle any refugees, arguing Australia is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and could not ignore the crisis.
The United States and other countries such as Gambia have said they will help in the resettlement of the refugees.
