The federal government has defended a program that gives asylum seekers living in community free accommodation and household goods packages worth up to $10,000.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says the goods must be left behind in the accommodation when the people move on or are accepted into Australia.
"There's a lounge, there's a fridge, there's a television, if there's a baby we provide a cot," he told Adelaide radio station 5AA on Friday.
"They are very basic provisions.
"Ten thousand dollars, for example, would be what would be involved for a family of nine, you know, much less than that for smaller families."
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said providing such packages and rent-free homes sent the wrong message to people smugglers.
"The message is going out loud and clear to the people smugglers and their clients and potential customers: the red carpet is being rolled out, there is a welcome mat waiting for you here in Australia," Mr Abbott told the Nine Network.
"That is the last message the federal government should be sending."
On Friday, the navy intercepted two boats carrying more than 130 people off the Western Australian coast.
More than 30 boats carrying a total of 2204 people have arrived in Australian waters in the past three months.
Refugee advocates said Australians should not think asylum seekers who lived in the community while their claims were being assessed were living in luxury.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," Uniting Church president Reverend Alistair Macrae said in a statement.
Human rights intellectual and lawyer Father Frank Brennan said asylum seekers released into the community needed the government to provide basic necessities because they could not work.
"If you are going to have people who are not allowed to work, then if you are going to maintain social harmony, you have to ensure they have something to live on and you have to ensure they have some humane accommodation," he told AAP.
Father Brennan, a professor of law at the Australian Catholic University, said providing some basic provisions was the very least Australia could do.
"Those who complain about it would have to acknowledge that if it's not paid for by government, then it would have to be paid for by voluntary organisations, and that most usually means the churches," he said.
Refugee Council of Australia chief Paul Power said some asylum seekers were detained in unfurnished houses.
"While community detention is more costly than conditional release into the community, it is far cheaper alternative than leaving asylum seekers locked up in detention centres," he said.
In 2010/11 the cost of maintaining Australia's detention centres was about $770 million, or an average of $137,000 per detainee.
Mr Abbott said most asylum seekers should be in detention while they were being processed.
"As far as is humanly possible, we don't want to keep kids in detention, but this is taking community release to a whole new level of what looks like luxury," he said.
Mr Bowen said the government had a duty of care to provide basic items such as cleaning supplies, furniture and bedding for vulnerable asylum seekers in community detention.
The Red Cross has been contracted to provide the packages for more than five years.
The opposition wants the government to reopen the Howard-era offshore processing centre in Nauru.
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