Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is poised to overhaul Labor's asylum seeker policy, after yet another boat carrying asylum seekers was rescued off Christmas Island overnight.
The Government is under increasing pressure to address the issue after a wave of asylum seeker arrivals and disasters in recent days.
The 120 people rescued last night will be processed on Christmas Island today.
The boat sent out a distress call yesterday when it got into trouble about 95 nautical miles east ofChristmas Island.
Australian Navy ship HMAS Bathurst, Customs vessel Triton, and a Customs plane were sent to assess the situation.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority says all 120 people on board the boat were transferred to theAustralian ships for safety reasons because of rough conditions.
On Tuesday night, four people drowned off the island when their boat capsized in rough seas and on Fridaya baby boy was among nine asylum killed when their boat sank off the island.
Refugee Convention under scrutiny
Mr Rudd has signalled he may seek changes to the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention as he attempts to revamp policy ahead of the federal election.
"We're looking at this right now globally in terms of the effectiveness of the refugees convention," he said.
"We're looking at it regionally in terms of our co-operation with regional states in Southeast Asia and the south-west Pacific, hence my visit to Indonesia."
Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Government's policy needs an upgrade to deal with the changing situation.
"As the people smugglers' model changes, so must policy change," he said.
"So there's no point in time in which you can say that all the work is done. What you need to do is constantly modify your policy to meet the changed response."
'Australia wouldn't walk away from obligations'
Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans has acknowledged concerns with the way the Refugee Convention applies to the 21st century.
Professor Evans says that while he does not believe Australia would ever walk away from its obligationsunder the convention, there are some issues that could be addressed.
"It's perfectly sensible to open up an international conversation about the scope of the convention but the truth of the matter in the short term, the medium term, the solution has to lie both in domestic measures and more particularly regional measures, offshore processing of the kind that was tried but rejected by the Opposition and the Greens in the case of Malaysia," he said.
"I can't believe that Australia would ever walk away from our obligations under the convention. But at the same time I think we have to recognise that for decades actually there have been concerns about the applicability of the convention to the circumstances of the 21st century compared with the post-World War II years when it was first created."
The Federal Government has already ordered Australia's refugee tribunals to take new country assessments into account when deciding on claims of asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam.
But international law expert Ben Saul is concerned about Labor's intentions.
"I think what the Government's really saying here is that it wants to reduce the level of protection," he said.
"Reviewing the effectiveness of the convention is worthwhile only if it means strengthening the protection."
He says there is no appetite internationally to change the Convention
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