Former prime minister John Howard has lashed out at Kevin Rudd's handling of asylum seekers and accused his Government of wasting the nation's cash.
Mr Rudd's approval rating dropped considerably last week as the impasse continues over what to do with hundreds of Australia-bound asylum seekers who remain in limbo.
Mr Howard used an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to attack the Federal Government's so-called Indonesian solution and defended his own record on immigration.
"We stopped the boats coming. The facts speak for themselves. The Indonesian solution? Well, there doesn't seem to be one," he said.
"The current handling of the 78 people aboard the Customs ship? I'll refrain from comment on that ... but speaking robustly in defence of our policy - we stopped the boats.
"People knew where we stood. We didn't try and be all things to all men. The net result was support for immigration and a humanitarian refugee program increased.''
Mr Howard also claims the Government has achieved very little since defeating him in 2007 and took credit for Australia keeping its head above water during the global financial crisis.
"I can't think of a major thing it has done, except spend the bank balance that Costello and I left behind. Nothing else," he said.
"In our first two years we put our funds into surplus after a huge deficit, radically changed our gun laws and we got ready for the huge reform of the waterfront.
"We changed our industrial relations system and brought in individual contracts. We privatised 30 per cent of Telstra and we had announced a comprehensive review of the tax system.
"So I'm scratching ... even with the emissions trading system, what Mr Rudd is proposing is not all that different from what I took to the last election.
"Mr Rudd will say he had the global financial crisis to handle. Well, courtesy of us he was well endowed with money in the bank."
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