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Australia's Opposition Leader faces party backlash after asylum seeker policy back-flip

Xinhua, July 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia's Opposition Leader is facing a battle with some of his Labor party colleagues on Friday after announcing his support for turning back asylum seeker boats, a back-flip on his party's stated policy, on Wednesday night.

Bill Shorten admitted his party was wrong with its asylum seeker policy going into the last election, telling Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he had changed his mind.

"I can no longer escape the conclusion that Labor, if we form a government, needs to have all the options on the table," Shorten said.

"It's not easy, though, because it involves the admission, I think, that mistakes were made when Labor was last in government."

Shorten will face stiff competition from his colleagues when he tries to convince his party to agree to the new policy, when he holds talks at the Labor Party (ALP) national conference in Melbourne from Friday.

He told the ABC that his change of heart was partly due to the current Abbott government policy, which Shorten said had successfully deterred people smugglers from bringing asylum seekers to Australia.

"If I want to be the leader of this nation, I've got to be able to face the truth. And the truth for me is that if we have policies in place which gives sustenance and support to people smugglers to exploit vulnerable people, where they put these vulnerable people on unsafe boats and then people drown at sea, I can't support any policies which do that," he said.

Members from the Labor party have already voiced their opinions, with some from the left faction saying they would fight Shorten's policy back-flip.

Labor MP Andrew Giles said he would not be supporting the move. "I'm concerned about the breach, as I see it, of international law, " he said.

Another Labor MP, Anna Burke, said Labor should be campaigning for a more humane approach to handling asylum seekers.

"I'm not in a position to support that policy," Burke said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said that many Labor supporters would be "heartbroken", while a spokesperson from the Refugee Council of Australia has said that Shorten was "pandering to the politics of fear" and "abandoning (the Labor party's) principles of fairness compassion and respect".

The ALP's national conference will be held in Melbourne from Friday until Sunday. Endi