WA MP to cut down Gillard's Malaysia Solution

WA Nationals MP Tony Crook will deliver the death blow today to Julia Gillard's bid to resurrect her people-swap deal with Malaysia.

Mr Crook said although sending asylum seekers to Malaysia may stop the boats, he felt uncomfortable with the prospect of sending unaccompanied children to uncertain futures in Kuala Lumpur.

"I have real concerns around the way asylum seekers, particularly juveniles, might be treated in Malaysia that we have absolutely no control over," he said.

"(Immigration Department Secretary) Andrew Metcalfe was telling us the model would work, this would stop the boats, the fear of going to Malaysia and being thrown in the massive queue.

"I don't disbelieve it at all, I just don't feel comfortable about it."

Mr Crook said he had agonised over his decision after being lobbied by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader and seeing merit in both their arguments.

Without Mr Crook's support, the Government has no chance of securing amendments to the Migration Act to circumvent the High Court's ruling on August 31 that the so-called Malaysia Solution was unlawful.

Under the deal, Australia would send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia and accept 4000 genuine refugees in return.

Ms Gillard, who yesterday celebrated the passage of the carbon pricing scheme through the House of Representatives, must now decide whether to pursue her amendments in full knowledge she would be the first PM since 1929 to have legislation defeated in the Lower House.

Some senior Labor figures believe it would be a pointless humiliation, aware that the Opposition would say it is a de facto vote of no confidence in the Government.

But Ms Gillard may insist on putting the amendments to the vote today so that she can portray Tony Abbott as a wrecker.

Mr Crook said he was angry and frustrated that Labor and the coalition could not compromise, given both supported offshore processing and were squabbling over whether it was done in Malaysia or the coalition's preferred nation, Nauru.

"Even if I supported the Government on this, it would lose in the Senate anyway because the Greens and the coalition would vote it down," Mr Crook said.

The coalition will only support amendments to the Act if the Government agrees to restrict offshore processing to countries that are signatories to the United Nations refugees convention - a condition that would exclude Malaysia but allow Nauru, which became a signatory a fortnight ago.

Solicitor-General Stephen Gageler advised the Government that the High Court decision put all offshore processing in doubt.

But the Opposition has rival legal advice that reopening the detention centre on Nauru would survive a legal challenge.

Mr Crook said he was more sympathetic to the coalition's position.

"The track record of the coalition on this has been pretty sound and in many respects the Government has brought this on themselves by changing the policy when they got into power," he said.