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Prime Minister elect Tony Abbott says Australia's contentious new policy on asylum seekers that includes turning back their boats to Indonesia would begin on Wednesday when his government is sworn in.
Abbott said Monday he hopes to travel to Indonesia for high-level meetings ahead of a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in the resort island of Bali in early October.
Abbott led his conservative coalition to a crushing election victory on Sept. 7 partly on a promise to stop an increasing number of asylum seekers from reaching Australian shores aboard Indonesian fishing boats.
His new approach to the problem includes forcing the Australian navy to turn boats back to Indonesia and buying boats from Indonesian fishing villages to prevent them from falling into the hands of people smugglers.
Indonesian officials have criticized both strategies and warned against Australia taking unilateral action.
Mahfudz Siddiq, a senior Indonesian lawmaker from Prosperous Justice Party, the largest Muslim-based party said "his idea is clearly insulting the dignity of Indonesians," and that “it showed to us that he does not understand diplomacy and threatens our bilateral cooperation with Australia."
Abbott on Monday also named the 42 executive members of his government which included only six women. Only one woman, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, has been appointed to Abbott's 19-member Cabinet.
Chris Bowen, a senior member of center-left Labor Party government that was defeated by Abbott after six years in power said was “a great shame that we only have one female member of the Cabinet of Australia,"
"Can the prime minister-elect look the Australian people in the eye and say not one other female in his entire party room was qualified enough, was meritorious enough, to serve in the Cabinet of Australia in 2013? I find that very disappointing," he added.