The Australian parliament today looked set to vote down Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s deal with Malaysia which would swap 800 boat people for 4,000 certified refugees.

Gillard’s minority Labor government needs the votes of the opposition to blunt a High Court ruling preventing the deportations, but Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott has pledged to withhold support.

“No decent country would send people who once had our protection to the kind of treatment they would get in Malaysia,” Abbott told parliament.

While stressing Malaysia was a friend and ally, “their standards are not our standards,” he said.

The deal, announced on April 7 and signed on July 25, was intended to deter the mostly Middle Eastern asylum seekers who board boats in Indonesia and claim asylum when they arrive in Australia.

Most asylum seekers pass through Malaysia, and returning them there would show them the trip to Australia was a waste of time and money.

One hundred boats have arrived in the 15 months since Gillard became prime minister, and 5,236 asylum seekers are in detention.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has said Australia would honour its side of the bargain in any event, and resettle 4,000 mostly Burmese refugees from Malaysia.

But he told reporters there would be a rush of inbound boats if parliament did not pass an amendment that would remove the legal obstacle to deportations.

“Mr Abbott has a chance to act in the national interest but he’s indicated he’s not going to do that,” Bowen said.

- dpa