The Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has tried to suggest they are now all economic refugees. If they are, they are sent back, and Carr knows that. He had no information which would have justified that comment. When the Gillard government stopped processing in August of last year, more than 90 per cent of those processed up to that point were genuine refugees.

The fact remains that, however unpleasant the Australian government tries to be, it cannot match the terror from which those who are genuine refugees are fleeing. That remains the fundamental flaw in the policy of deterrence.

On his visit to Indonesia, Prime Minister Rudd emphasised the importance of a regional solution and welcomed the fact that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had announced Indonesia would chair a meeting to discuss regional solutions to the problem. That decision, to work through the so-called Bali process, did not last very long and then Rudd came out with his Nauru and Manus Island solution. I am advised he did so without a cabinet decision, certainly not a full cabinet decision.

It was, again, a knee-jerk reaction giving the impression of fixing a problem, in a way that will likely only create many more problems.

We have all now been told what was happening on Manus Island and on Nauru. Again, it appears no one is responsible, but it is clear enough the most terrible conditions prevailed. Asylum seekers were abused and, for a long while, families were in an intolerable position.

The asylum seekers, who could have been asked about the misdeeds on Manus Island, have been moved to the mainland and probably dispersed. At the very least, they should have been closely questioned about the abuse, the victims and the perpetrators.

Instead of that, Immigration Minister Tony Burke visited Manus Island and says it is very much as he expected. It accorded with almost all the principles he thought were relevant. In other words, Manus Island as it is - with totally inadequate space, with tents that leak, with no space for separation of good from bad - is fine. Apparently, under the new policy, 500 asylum seekers are going to be sent there within weeks.

Meanwhile, the opposition has weighed in and announced a new policy to put a three-star general in charge of the border protection arrangements, in place of a two-star navy admiral, currently in charge of military efforts in the region.

The opposition is highly critical of Papua New Guinea and speaks of that nation in a way that has justifiably brought a sharp rebuke from the Prime Minister, Peter O'Neill. Former prime minister Michael Somare, whom I know well, has also weighed in; he says the arrangements will not work.

Our two major political parties should be congratulated on one thing: they both seem to have found new ways of taking Australia's approach to this problem to new depths, to new lows. And they do this even though they know a solution exists - but it is a solution they have never sought. After the end of the Vietnam War, with tens, even hundreds of thousands of people fleeing from Indo-China, procedures were put in place that did work.

This resulted, so far as Australia is concerned, in a dynamic Vietnamese Australian community, energetic, innovative and contributing enormously to the culture and development of this nation.

A holding centre was established in Malaysia, with Malaysian approval and the United Nations' involvement. Malaysia was happy to co-operate because it knew Australia, the United States and Canada were going to take tens of thousands of people out of that centre, so Malaysia would not be left with a settlement problem that would be quite beyond its capacity.

We now need the same kind of arrangement again, with a centre in Indonesia. We would need the agreement of other resettlement countries, such as the US and Canada, because the numbers are greater than Australia alone could handle.

That procedure worked before; there is no reason it should not work again. It might improve relations with Indonesia, which cannot be very happy because out of our increased humanitarian intake, only a couple of hundred have been allocated to relieve the pressure on Indonesia.

What we did in the past worked. It could work again. Why has nobody, in government or opposition, tried to adapt that to today's circumstances?

Malcolm Fraser was prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983.

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