The federal government is exploring ways to send home asylum seekers deemed ''economic migrants'' as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd toughens approval processes in an attempt to harden Labor's credentials on boat arrivals.
As Mr Rudd announced his new cabinet, including Tony Burke as a new broom in the politically sensitive Immigration portfolio, the government was believed to be moving quickly on cutting the number of boat arrivals.
Fairfax Media understands that Australia is speaking to Iran and the UNHCR about how failed asylum seekers can be returned to that country.
At present, the Iranian government refuses to take them back, although hopes have been raised by the recent election of a more moderate regime after the rule of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the ABC on Monday: ''The fact is, these people are middle-class Iranians. They're leaving their country because of the economic pressures - much of it produced, I guess, by the sanctions that apply to Iran because of the nuclear ambitions of its Supreme Leader and its Guardianship Council.''
Of the 12,936 people who arrived by boat in the past six months, 4271 - nearly one-third - claim to have come from Iran, according to the latest Immigration Department figures. Among the others, 1765 said they were Afghan, 1706 Sri Lankan, 853 Pakistani and 644 Iraqi.
Mr Rudd plans to travel to Jakarta this week to meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Asylum seekers are expected to be among the top issues discussed at the talks.
The changes under Mr Rudd also include having Australian diplomatic missions gather detailed, up-to-the-minute information on conditions for potentially persecuted groups.
This is aimed at tackling concerns within government that the Refugee Review Tribunal is waving through applications from people
of particular ethnic and religious groups even though they come from regions where those groups are not persecuted.
Confidential government briefings are understood to cite numerous examples of economic migrants such as Sri Lankans who have been living in India for years before seeking asylum in Australia - although this doesn't rule them out as refugees.
The new cabinet was also expected to consider tightening the actual process for assessing people's' claims, called the refugee status determination system.
Senator Carr warned on Friday that Australia needed to be ''more hard-edged'' about how it assessed asylum claims and added that the government's changes meant the tribunal and courts would have less discretion.
Since he toppled Julia Gillard to reclaim the Labor leadership last week, Mr Rudd has come out swinging on the asylum-seeker issue, which along with the carbon tax is the Coalition's main point of attack against the government.
On Friday he accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott of risking conflict with Indonesia over the Coalition's vow to turn back asylum-seeker boats - sparking outrage from the opposition.
The changes flagged by the government have been condemned by refugee advocates.
David Manne, the lawyer who sank the government's Malaysia ''solution'' in the High Court, said the government would ''run the real risk of violating our fundamental obligations'' under the Refugee Convention. ''This suggestion all of a sudden that they're overly generous is a bolt from the blue,'' he said.
''It's contrary to the evidence and it's very serious for the government to be making these unsourced, unsubstantiated assertions about it's own, independent, statutory tribunal.''
He criticised Senator Carr's claim that people of ethnic and religious majorities couldn't generally claim to be persecuted.
Iraqis fleeing Saddam Hussein were mostly Shiites - the majority religious group in that country.
A spokesman for the UNHCR said the organisation welcomed a review of the refugee status determination system if it ensured ''the quality of decision making and adequacy of procedural safeguards''.
''The integrity of the international protection system requires that protection be provided for those who are found to be refugees or otherwise in need of international protection, and ensuring that those who are not can return home in safety and dignity,'' he said.
