New laws aimed at stemming the numbers of asylum seekers smuggled by boat into Australia by gangs is to come into force soon.
The Labor Party has agreed to support the measures proposed by the ruling Liberal Party that boost the maximum penalty for a first people-smuggling conviction to five years and second convictions to eight years.
The new laws will also bar people from arriving at the remote territories of the Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, Ashmore Reef and Cartier Reef under Australia's normal asylum laws.
They will instead be processed under United Nations's guidelines, which the government said are less generous, and will have no right of appeal to the courts as they would if landing on the mainland.
After Prime Minister Mr John Howard last month refused entry to 433 mostly-Afghan refugees rescued from a sinking Indonesian ferry by a Norwegian cargo ship, the Tampa, the government's poll ratings surged.
With an election expected in late November, Mr Howard's government and Labor are taking hardline stances against boat people.
In the year ending June 30th, about 4,100 asylum seekers arrived on Australian shores. In the past few years Australia has set aside 12,000 places annually for refugees under a United Nations refugee resettlement programme.