Should Australia accept 438 asylum seekers on board a Norwegian freighter, the country would become the “soft touch” on the global people smuggling stage, Federal Member for Gilmore Joanna Gash said.

The Liberal bankbencher yesterday stood by Prime Minister John Howard’s stance that the Tampa, anchored off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, should take the mostly Afghani asylum seekers to Indonesia, their point of departure.

Mr Howard had on Wednesday night tried unsuccessfully to rush through emergency legislation to reinforce its power to forcibly remove the ship, which had defied Australia’s orders by entering its waters on Wednesday morning.

Mrs Gash said the government would try to re-introduce the legislation as soon as today, with an extended sitting possible for tomorrow.

She said Kim Beazley’s Opposition should realise “there are more outside wanting come in as well”.

“How do we justify this to the Australian people,” she said.

“We’re being seen as the soft touch to people smugglers.

“On a humanitarian ground we’ve made sure people on the boat have received food and water but we are determined to send them back.

“And I am sick of seeing women and children being used for propaganda purposes.”

Mrs Gash’s ALP counterpart for Gilmore Peter Knott could not be contacted yesterday.

The South Coast Labor Council seceretary Arthur Rorris said the Government is acting “in a disgraceful way”.