HOST: To discuss this further, Prime Minister Julia Gillard joins us now from Canberra. Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PM: Good morning.
HOST: Before we get to the deal, there was more tragedy of course about this time yesterday with another boat capsizing off Christmas Island. What's the latest on that situation?
PM: The latest situation is 130 people have been rescued and taken to Christmas Island. Tragically one body has been recovered, so a person has lost their life. And we believe that there were 134 people on board the boat, so that means that three are still missing.
HOST: Let's then talk about the so-called compromise deal. Is it a good one? Or is it more a case of the best compromise you could get?
PM: It's a case of acting and getting done what we need to do in this Parliament.
The arrangement that went through the House of Representatives yesterday combines a key element of the Government's policy, the arrangement with Malaysia, with a key element of the Opposition's policy, having a detention centre in Nauru.
It was a Bill moved by an Independent, Rob Oakeshott, and this takes it, I believe, outside the normal day-to-day of politics, of Government and Opposition criticising each other or dealing with each other. It takes it into a different space.
This is genuinely an attempt to end the politics, to have a true compromise and sitting here now this is the only Bill that has the option of passing the Parliament today.
This is the only Bill that is before the Senate so there's a very stark choice for Senators today, each of them.
Either they vote for this Bill and we will leave this Parliament with laws so that we can process people offshore, or they continue to play politics and we end this Parliament with nothing effective done.
I believe the time for politics is over, the Senate must act and must endorse what the House or Representatives passed yesterday.
HOST: Well I guess the question so many Australians want answered is if the Bill does in fact pass, will it stop the boats?
PM: Well we have been advised very clearly that our arrangement with Malaysia will be an effective deterrent.
What it will be saying to the people smugglers is that they can no longer pretend to asylum seekers that if people get on their very dangerous boats they will end up in Australia.
They won't end up in Australia. Under our arrangement with Malaysia, they'll end up in Malaysia and of course we will also, having adopted part of the Opposition's plan, have a detention centre in Nauru.
HOST: You haven't managed to persuade the Opposition though on this. This is what Tony Abbott had to say about the deal.
ABBOTT: And it should fail in the Senate because it is not good legislation and this will have bad outcomes for the Australian nation. It compromises our standards and it will not stop the boats.
HOST: Alright, a bad law that won't pass according to Tony Abbott. What's your response to that?
PM: Well I think it's Mr Abbott needs to recognise that this is the only law that will pass.
Mr Abbott put his proposition to the House of Representatives yesterday and it was defeated.
So that means the situation today is just a crystal clear one - absolutely clear.
There's no ambiguity about it at all. A Bill passed the House of Representatives yesterday; it would enable our nation to do offshore processing.
That Bill is before the Senate today.
Either we leave here today with that Bill having become law or this Parliament, and I would suggest to you the Leader of the Opposition, by taking a negative attitude, would have failed the Australian people.
HOST: Prime Minister, of course the major sticking point for the Coalition has been the fact that Malaysia's not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention. This is what a very emotional Joe Hockey has to say yesterday.
HOCKEY: I will never ever support a people swap where you can send a 13 year old child, unaccompanied to a country without supervision. Never, it'll be over my dead body. How dare they.
HOST: Why are you so intent on keeping Malaysia as part of the equation?
PM: Because we have been very clearly advised by the same experts who advised the Howard Government, Mr Hockey when he was a Government Minister.
We've been very clearly advised by those experts that our arrangement with Malaysia is the most effective deterrent. It is the strongest message we can send to people smugglers and there was plenty of emotion in the House of Representatives. People spoke from a variety of perspectives and they were very very genuine when they did it.
I really understand that, that people come with different heartfelt views on this very difficult topic but I don't want to see that 13 year old girl drown at sea.
I want us to have effective laws and we can leave this Parliament today with effective laws if the Opposition votes in the Senate to pass the only law that can now go through the Parliament today.
HOST: If it is blocked in the Senate, where to next?
PM: Well we will go into the winter recess, this is last the parliamentary sitting day and we will not have passed laws for offshore processing.
That means that our nation cannot have at its disposal the most effective means of sending the strongest possible message we want to, to people smugglers, the strongest message of deterrence, I think that would be a very very disappointing outcome.
I am calling on each and every Senator today to look into their conscience, to think deeply about this.
I understand that it's not many people's preferred outcome, I do understand that, but it's the only outcome that enables us to leave the Parliament today with laws that enable offshore processing.
And this Bill, which is the Bill of an Independent, in the House of Representatives yesterday got broad support.
The Government voted for it, every Independent in the House of Representatives voted for it, people of good conscience in the Liberal Party like Mal Washer were favourably predisposed towards it.
This is genuinely a compromise - part of what the Government wanted, part of what the Opposition wanted - let's just stop the politics and get this done.
HOST: Alright, a critically important day today in our Parliament. Prime Minister Gillard, we appreciate your time today. Thank you very much.
PM: Thank you.