Govt slammed for asylum boat bill delay The Gillard government is determined to remove a legal loophole allowing asylum seekers to avoid being processed offshore if they arrive on the Australian mainland. Until then, Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare acknowledges there may be "incentives" for would-be refugees who manage to do so. His comment follows the arrival on Tuesday of an asylum seeker boat with 66 passengers, thought to be Sri Lankans, at the busy West Australian port of Geraldton. Under existing legislation, asylum seekers who reach the mainland avoid being sent to processing centres on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Labor is seeking to change this, with legislation currently before the Senate. Under the plan, which has the support of the coalition, mainland Australia will join Ashmore Island, Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, and Cocos Islands out of the migration zone. Asylum seekers who land out of the migration zone cannot make visa applications and must be processed on Nauru and Manus Island. Mr Clare said it was the government's "wish and desire" for the bill to be debated as soon as parliament resumes. "As soon as the parliament returns, we need that legislation passed through so we can remove any incentive that might exist in this area for boats to aim at the mainland," he told Sky News on Wednesday. We need to get it through as quick as we can. Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison accused the government of "tardiness and laziness" for not passing its excision legislation earlier. "They had coalition support for it immediately and they sat on their hands," he told reporters in Sydney. What that means ... is the entire Western Australian coast up to Darwin is all basically open game for people smugglers to land people in Australia and not have to have their passengers subjected to being transferred for offshore processing. "It just gets worse and worse all the time," he told Melbourne radio station Gold FM. I think effectively, the government has kind of surrendered. Mr Clare says Customs and Border Protection will conduct a review into how the vessel made it to the mainland undetected - the first to do so in about five years. Astonished locals spotted the blue and white fishing vessel floating near the shore around noon on Tuesday. Despite Geraldton being one of Australia's busiest regional ports, the boat had made it to within metres of the mainland and was first intercepted by two local men in a dinghy.