Labor can't win on the current asylum seeker issue. if they do nothing they are blamed for all the boats and costs. Once they try to do something that may be effective they hurt the left of the Labor party and lose favour with them. The best thing Labor could do would be to give-in to Abbott and give him absolutely everything he wants on asylum seeker legislation. When those policies fail (as there is a decent chance of it occurring) then Labor direct all the blame to Abbott. To do this (adopt coalition asylum seeker policy in full) however would require Gillard to be rolled as leader and a new leader (not Rudd), someone such as Ferguson instated as a puppet leader till the next election with the idea of minimising Labor losses at the next election and rebuilding for the 2019 election.