Premier Campbell Newman and Opposition leader Tony Abbott address Liberal National Party convention in Brisbane Tony Abbott receives a warm welcome from Lisa Newman, Queensland Premier Campbell Newman's wife, on arriving at the LNP State Conference. KEVIN Rudd's plan to send refugees to Papua New Guinea will spark a wave of asylum seekers trying to reach Queensland, Premier Campbell Newman says. Mr Newman said PNG will become a "launching pad" for asylum seekers to island hop across the Torres Strait to Queensland. "What Kevin Rudd has done is take Australia's problem and make it Queensland's problem," Mr Newman said at the Liberal National Party convention today. What Kevin Rudd is doing is creating a launching pad for a wave of additional ongoing immigration from PNG into Queensland, either legal or illegal. The Premier said PNG nationals could already easily cross into Queensland and he predicted many asylum seekers would try to reach the state if they were sent to our northern neighbour. "The Torres Strait is a porous border right now," Mr Newman said. It's only 4 kilometres from PNG onto the soil of QLD. You can go from PNG into Queensland across the Strait in a row boat. The Premier demanded Mr Rudd spend more on beefing up border protection measures in the Torres Strait. He also warned PNG was not prepared to cope with the influx of refugees who would be resettled there under Mr Rudd's new border protection policy. Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman. "I don't know how a country like PNG that right now can't cope in terms of its own health and security requirements is going to deal with this wave of people that Mr Rudd intends to impose upon them," Mr Newman said. Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott lashed Mr Rudd's plan to send asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea as an "election fix" that won't work. While he thanked PNG for agreeing to the plan, Mr Abbott vowed he would never use another country to solve Australia's domestic problems if he won the election. "The only solution to Australian problems is found here in Australia," Mr Abbott said. I will never subcontract out to other countries the solution of problems in this country. Mr Abbott said Mr Rudd's PNG plan should be considered a failure unless every new asylum seeker arrival was sent to Manus Island and the rate of boat arrivals stopped "from today." In an address to the Liberal National Party convention in Brisbane today, Mr Abbott said his opponent was trying to trick his way back in to office. "Mr Rudd is hoping to surf back to government on a wave of amnesia and relief at the demise of an unpopular prime minister," he said. We won't let the Australian people forget. The opposition leader said the election would be tougher now that Mr Rudd had returned to the prime ministership. "I've got to say, I am grateful to Mr Rudd because if there's one thing he's done, he has destroyed any complacency on our side," Mr Abbott said. Let's be under no illusions that we have a fight on our hands. But he told his supporters they could win at the ballot box. "We don't know when the election will be called but we can hear the drums beating," he said. We can hear the drums beating, calling us, calling us to the campaign which will make such a difference and I know we are ready. The opposition leader used much of his speech to attack Mr Rudd. He mocked the prime minister's claims that he had changed and he would reform the Labor Party. Oh, ok, he's changed. He says he's changed," Mr Abbott said. If the people who know him best don't trust him, why should the Australian public? Mr Abbott lashed the government's fringe benefit tax hit on company cars to the mining tax, saying it would raise no money and destroy the car industry. He said Mr Rudd had tweeted the message "your business model has just ended" in a reference to his crack down on people smugglers. But he urged car companies, cattle farmers and insulation installers who have been hurt by the government's policies to retweet the message.