Australia is facing a huge increase in asylum-seekers, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is vowing to do everything physically possible to deal with the challenge.
However, he still will not say what happened on board a boat identified as suspected illegal entry vessel 26 that exploded last week, saying it could jeopardise the police investigation.
Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus said last night the Navy had not yet determined whether the explosion was accidental or deliberate.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull repeated his call for the Government to reveal why the boat exploded. ''They know full well what's happened. They've known for some time. They should tell the truth. That's all we're asking them to do.''
Northern Territory Police acting Commander Peter Bravos would also not comment on reports the asylum-seekers, worried they could be sent back to Indonesia, had spread petrol on the deck of the boat before it accidentally ignited.
He said speculation and claims of a cover-up were disappointing.
''Speculation has the ability to compromise the investigation,'' he said yesterday.
Northern Territory coroner Greg Cavanagh revealed the results of autopsies on the three men confirmed dead.
''These have found the provisional cause of deaths is drowning subject to toxicology and other forensic pathology tests,'' he said.
Two other men are missing presumed dead, three are in immigration custody and 41 continue to recover in hospitals across the country. Three patients at Royal Darwin Hospital could be discharged today and six patients could be discharged from Royal Perth Hospital early next week.
Mr Rudd said he had spoken to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as well as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, reaffirming the three nations' ''commitment to work closely together ... to ensure that we are doing everything physically possible to deal with this challenge, represented by people smuggling across our wider region''.
''The reality is, we are facing huge additional numbers across the archipelago, coming off global factors,'' he said. ''This is a real challenge. But we will continue to marshal our assets and resources against the challenge as it unfolds.''
Mr Debus said last night there were thousands of potential asylum seekers in Indonesia waiting who could try to come to Australia.
Mr Turnbull continued accusing the Government of being soft on border protection, and appeared to call for the reintroduction of temporary protection visas, saying this ''should be high on the agenda''. However, his office was unable to clarify whether that meant he was calling for their reintroduction or saying the Opposition was considering calling for this.
Former immigration minister Kevin Andrews, who is reviewing Opposition policy, said policies taken to the 2007 election stood until they were replaced. ''That means we remain in favour of temporary protection visas,'' he said.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said temporary protection visas should ''remain buried as a cruel relic of the former Howard regime''.
''What we do need to do for those people who are prepared to jump on a boat and come to Australia is recognise that those people are in a desperate situation.
''The last thing we should be doing is punishing them because they are victims of persecution, torture and abuse,'' she said.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said temporary detention visas did not deter people. ''It just made them suffer. I think they were largely discredited long before the end of the Howard government,'' he said.
Seventy Afghan asylum-seekers who planned to sail from Indonesia to Australia will be returned to their war-torn home country. The Afghans were apprehended without proper travel documents at a hotel at the beach resort of Anyer, near Jakarta, late last week.
The group was planning to sail to Australia. But they said they had been abandoned by the people smugglers they paid to get them there.
Most of the Afghans are from the minority Hazara ethnic group.
Police in the West Javan province of Banten said yesterday the Afghans would be deported to Afghanistan.
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