Rudd warns Abbott risks Indonesia incident Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has explosively accused the opposition leader of risking a diplomat incident with Indonesia over asylum seekers. The former diplomat and foreign minister said Tony Abbott's plan to "turn back the boats" if the coalition won government would set Australia on a "policy collision" with Indonesia. "I really wonder if he is trying to risk conflict with Indonesia," Mr Rudd said in Canberra on Friday. You really need to have some pretty cool hands on the tiller when you are dealing with the international relationship. The coalition's campaign for government includes a focus on asylum seeker boats and border protection. Mr Abbott wants to resurrect the former Howard coalition's instruction to the navy to turn back Indonesia flagged and crewed boats, which reduced annual arrivals to the single digits by the mid-2000s, where it's safe to do so. However, Mr Rudd says it can't be done again because Indonesia has said it won't cooperate. "What happens on day one when Field Marshall Tony puts out the order to the captain of the naval frigate X to turn back a bunch of boats, and you have got a naval frigate from the Indonesian navy on the other side of the equation," Mr Rudd said. Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop responded angrily saying his statements were outrageous. "The prime minister of this country has falsely, maliciously, recklessly, irresponsibly said that the coalition would trigger conflict with Indonesia," she said. It is not our policy to breach Indonesian territorial sovereignty nor is it our policy to trigger a conflict with Indonesia. It is an utterly, utterly outrageous statement for Kevin Rudd to make. Some 44,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat in the five years since Mr Rudd dismantled the Howard-era border protection policies when he first became prime minister in 2007. Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australia needed a "tougher , more hard-edged" assessment regime for asylum seekers to stem the growing number of economic migrants coming by boat. "These are increasingly not people fleeing persecution," Senator Carr told the Senate. The Refugee Council of Australia said this was not the only country in the world to record increases in asylum seeker applications. "The truth is Australia's share of global responsibility for refugees is very small," council president Phil Glendinning said in a statement. Mr Rudd was due to speak with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by telephone on Friday about mutual security issues. Mr Rudd is still to decide whether to travel to Indonesia next week for scheduled bilateral talks. Mr Abbott challenged Mr Rudd to stop the flow of asylum seeker boats. Kevin Rudd is the best friend the people smugglers have ever had. Kevin Rudd gave the people smugglers back their business model," he told a coalition party room meeting.