West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has called for a consistent and bipartisan approach to asylum seekers arriving in boats.
Mr Barnett made the comments in relation to reports in News Ltd on Tuesday that the Immigration Department and its detention centre manager Serco had modified the system of rewards, incentives and punishments to better manage the detainee population.
The report said detainees deemed low-risk were being allowed to leave Curtin, in the West Australian Kimberley region, for the low-security detention centre near Hobart.
Troublesome asylum-seekers on the mainland are increasingly being flown to Christmas Island to be locked down in cells, News Ltd said.
Mr Barnett said asylum seekers were an ongoing issue and he hoped Australia would get a more sophisticated and bipartisan approach to that issue.
"The problem with this asylum seeker policy, or lack of it, is that it is just chop change all the time," Mr Barnett said.
"No-one has a magic solution and incentives here; minor changes here are simply not working."
But Prime Minister Julia Gillard rejected the suggestion the system had changed.
"There have always been administrative arrangements made so that asylum seekers are held in detention facilities that are most suitable for them," Ms Gillard said.
Two more suspected asylum seeker boats were intercepted by Australian authorities on Monday afternoon.
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