Resettling four Tamils who pose a security risk to Australia is a problem the Rudd government has created for itself, the federal opposition says.
The nation's security intelligence agency, ASIO, has found four of the 78 asylum seekers rescued by the Oceanic Viking late last year off Indonesia, pose a threat to national security.
The immigration department says the Sri Lankans, now at the Christmas Island detention facility, will not be granted residency in Australia.
A third country will need to be found to resettle the four Tamils because the United Nations has found them to be genuine asylum seekers. The opposition says it's a problem the government has created for itself.
"The government has created this problem, it's completely and utterly of their own making, and they will need to find a solution to it,"opposition justice and customs spokesman Michael Keenan told ABC Radio on Tuesday. "(But) The likelihood of a third country ... is very limited.
"The moral of the story is, 'Don't do a special deal to bring people to Australia'," Mr Keenan said.
Send the Oceanic Viking to monitor whaling protest: Abbott
Yesterday Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the government should send the Oceanic Viking patrol vessel to the southern ocean to monitor the clashes between Japanese whalers and anti-whaling protesters,
"The Oceanic Viking ... as I understand it, is available to be deployed down into the Southern Ocean," Mr Abbott told Macquarie Radio on Monday.
"That is its main job, as a kind of fisheries protection vessel. It should be deployed to this area, it should be there to try to ensure that Australia at least has a presence in this trouble spot and is able to work out exactly who is doing what," he said.
"You've got the Japanese saying that they're being harassed illegally by the protesters, you've got the protesters saying that the Japanese deliberately tried to sink a vessel.
"If the Oceanic Viking was there it might be able to keep the two groups at arm's length, but certainly if there is trouble at least there would be a third party down there to know what's happening."
The ship might also curtail Japan's whaling activities, Mr Abbott said. "If the protesters are where the whales are and Australia via the Oceanic Viking is there to try to keep the sides apart, maybe it won't be such a great whaling season for the Japanese," he said.
It was not the coalition's policy to pursue Japan in the international courts, Mr Abbott said. "We don't like whaling, we would like the Japanese to stop," he said.
"On the other hand, we don't want to needlessly antagonise our most important trading partner, a fellow democracy, an ally."
