• The Pulse: Katharine Murphy blogs live from Canberra
• Malaysia angry over Australian criticism
• Michelle Grattan: Experts float a blueprint for asylum compromise
• Read the full report here
• Documentary: Hope – one asylum seeker’s life and death struggle for a new life

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has backed an independent report on asylum seekers, telling Labor MPs this afternoon that the government should adopt all the recommendations in the report.

An expert panel lead by former Defence Chief Angus Houston has recommended that Australia process asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, and that the Malaysia people swap should be “built on further” before anyone was sent to Malaysia.

The expert panel on asylum seekers, Michael L’Estrange, Angus Houston and Paris Aristotle, have handed their recommendations to the government. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

It is understood that Ms Gillard and Immigration Minister Mr Bowen have told a special Labor caucus meeting in Canberra that the government should adopt all 22 recommendations in the report.

It is also understood caucus has agreed and Ms Gillard is due to address the media later today.

The Greens have rejected the offshore processing recommendations while Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has called on the government to reopen processing centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

The Houston panel, which Ms Gillard appointed in June to help break a political deadlock on the issue, released its report earlier this afternoon.

It also recommended that Australia’s humanitarian program be increased immediately to 20,000 places a year (from the current 13,750), with a consideration of an increase to 27,000 within five years.

Air Chief Marshal Houston told reporters in Canberra that the review had been a “challenging” task and that there were no simple solutions. He said the recommendations were “an integrated set of proposals”.

He said that the panel “fiercely defended” its independence, and Ms Gillard had made it clear it had free rein to run its review.

“We’ve taken everything on its merits,” he said.

When it came to the Coalition’s policy of turning boats back, Air Chief Marshal Houston said that he had a lot of appreciation of the associated legal issues, given his Defence background. But the panel had also taken expert advice on the matter.

“Right now we believe that the conditions do not exist to be able to turn boats back,” he said.

He said that the panel had briefed Ms Gillard as well as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the Greens and the independents on their findings.

He said the group, which included former diplomat Michael L’Estrange and refugee expert Paris Aristotle, wanted to see policy that was “hard-headed but not hard-hearted”.

The former Defence chief said the independent panel had been “deeply concerned” about the loss of life at sea.

From late 2001 to June 2012, 964 asylum seekers and boat crew have been lost at sea while en route to Australia, he said. Of these, 604 people have died since October 2009.

“To do nothing is unacceptable,” he said.

He added that it was in Australia’s national interest to co-ordinate better with regional and source countries.

He said that panel believed that a “no-advantage” principle should apply “whereby irregular migrants gain no benefit by choosing the circumvent regular migration mechanisms”.

Air Chief Marshal Houston said that the large backlog in the special humanitarian program also needed to be addressed.

The panel recommended that a strategy to “significantly” increase resettlement places provided by Australia to war-torn countries in the Middle East and Asia region be developed.

Legislation to support regional offshore processing should be introduced into the Parliament immediately, it said, and processing centres should be established in Nauru and Papua New Guinea immediately.

The existing Manus Island processing facility, in Papua New Guinea, was last used in the Howard government era – as was the processing centre on Nauru.

Air Chief Marshal Houston said that onshore processing was “seeing a very big pull” towards Australia.

He said the panel’s recommendations would cost $1 billion annually but most of this would be offset by savings, drawn from a reduction in border control and customs costs that have ballooned with the influx of boats.

More than 7500 people have arrived in Australia by boat since the start of the year. This compares with about 4500 people for the whole of 2011.

“Unless we do something different … the problem is just going to get worse,” he said. “Onshore processing encourages people to jump on boats.”

Air Chief Marshal Houston said that the panel had looked at temporary protection visas. He said they would not be needed in Nauru or PNG, but a form of the visa may be required if vulnerable people needed to come to Australia.

The people-swap deal with Malaysia should be ”built on, not discarded” but the panel warned that, if it was to work, protection measures and safety guarantees for the fate of asylum seekers sent from Australia to Malaysia were needed.

The panel believed these measures ”did not currently exist but could in the future”.

The report has already had the thumbs-up from independent MP Rob Oakeshott.

“Briefing with former CDF complete. Good strategy proposed. Time to get on with it, and for the Parliament to pass appropriate legislation,” Mr Oakeshott posted on Twitter.

Mr Morrison encouraged Labor to ”get to work” on reopening the asylum seeker centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

The Coalition frontbencher said the Houston report endorsed the spirit of temporary protection visas and supported the Howard government view that family reunions were a pull factor.

He said the panel had dispelled the ”nonsense” view that boats could not be towed back to sea, but ducked the issue on the panel’s recommendation that the current settings were illegal and unsafe to do so.

Mr Morrison offered bipartisan support and any necessary assistance in reopening both processing centres, but made it plain the Coalition viewed the report as a ”greenlight for Nauru and Manus Island and a red light for Malaysia”.

He refused to answer whether he supported the full suite of recommendations – with the exception of the Malaysia proposal – saying the opposition would make a full response when the government delivered its own reaction.

Greens leader Christine Milne said her party was disappointed that the panel had not listened to expert advice and was going back to the “bad old days” of offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island.

“What is coming to the Parliament is a proposition that we take away human rights, that is a proposition that John Howard put forward,” Senator Milne told reporters in Canberra today.

“The Greens will not be party to something which is cruel to people,” she said.

Senator Milne welcomed the recommended increase in Australia’s humanitarian intake, which is something the Greens have been calling for.

She said it was “clearly the best thing to do” and that it reduced the pressure on people to get on boats.

She also said that the panel’s position on Malaysia – calling for greater human rights protections – vindicated the Greens’ opposition to the Malaysia deal.

Among the panel’s other recommendations was a call for immediate bilateral co-operation on asylum seeker issues with Indonesia.

There should also be an increase in the allocation of resettlement places available to Indonesians under Australia’s humanitarian program, enhanced co-operation on joint surveillance, law enforcement and search and rescue co-ordination.

The panel said Australian laws that jailed Indonesian minors who crewed on the unlawful boat voyages needed to be reviewed.

Australia should continue to develop its relationship with Malaysia, including a greater number of refugees to be accepted from the country into Australia.

The humanitarian program and Australia’s onshore and offshore processing ”components” should be reviewed within two years.

Air Chief Marshal Houston noted that the issues the report dealt with had been “swirling around” in the Australian community for a long time.

“There are very few new ideas in this arena,” he said.

Repeat offender … coal railways in the Hunter affect more than 23,000 students. Photo: Dean Osland

MORE than 23,000 students at about 60 Hunter schools within 500 metres of the region’s coal railway spend their lunchtimes breathing air filled with coal dust from passing trains.

Many also spend their days in classrooms without airconditioners or air filters to protect them from damaging particulates in the dust.

Singleton GP Dr Tuan Au has been investigating a link between open-cut mining operations and rising respiratory illness in his community and has thrown his support behind a campaign to put covers on the trains.

The Maitland-Newcastle Diocese Catholic Schools Office said two primary schools, St James in Muswellbrook and St Joseph’s Denman, had dust-monitoring devices. Precautions were also taken at St Catherine’s Catholic College in Singleton, where staff brought students indoors when it was windy or dusty.

”The Catholic Schools Office and its schools follow the advice of Hunter New England Health, however [they] are open to all initiatives that lead to cleaner air,” an office spokeswoman said.

A NSW Education Department spokesman said it had not been approached by any school raising coal dust as a health issue.

”The department and schools would co-operate with the health or environmental authorities if they saw schools as having a role to play,” he said. ”Any parents with concerns are advised to seek medical advice.”

The chief executive of the NSW Minerals Council, Stephen Galilee, said it was important to monitor air quality and establish the facts.

”We’re keeping a close eye on the progress of this work so we can develop the right response and implement better methods of dust suppression,” he said.

Dr Au said the longer children were exposed to pollution, the more lung damage was caused.