Labor leader Bill Shorten's backflip on turning back asylum seeker boats opens the party to claims of hypocrisy, and is at odds with the ALP's long-standing opposition to the policy.

The ALP has criticised the measure on the grounds that it would be ineffective and unworkable, unsafe for asylum seekers and border protection officials and would cause diplomatic problems with Indonesia.

Labor backbencher and former speaker Anna Burke has warned voters may abandon the party following Mr Shorten's decision.

Here are 13 quotes or comments that could come back to haunt Labor MPs:

September 2011: Immigration minister Chris Bowen questioned the Coalition's turn-back policy and its criticism of Labor's proposed Malaysia solution:

"The evidence is overwhelming that turning back the boats is a crude policy that is neither safe nor viable. Yet this is where the elegance of the Malaysia transfer arrangement shines through -- turning back people in a safe and orderly way."

September 2011: Mr Bowen questioned the Coalition's pledge to turn asylum seeker boats towards Indonesia – a country which is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention.

October 2011: Prime minister Julia Gillard said opposition leader Tony Abbott's pledge to "turn back the boats" can't be done because the navy has warned it will put at risk the lives of Australian sailors. The navy had told a Senate inquiry that turning back the boats was dangerous because of the risk of fires, sabotage and people jumping in the water.

March 2012: Immigration minister Chris Bowen accused Mr Abbott of being "in denial" over his refusal to accept Indonesia's rejection of his policy to turn back asylum-seeker boats.

"What more does Tony Abbott need to hear to know Indonesia will have nothing to do with towing back boats? "He needs to accept reality," Mr Bowen said.

In January 2014, Indonesia's military said it had reached a private agreement with the Australian Defence Force to accept turned-backs boats to defuse the diplomatic row over the policy.

July 2012: Ms Gillard said Mr Abbott's plan "keeps running into the wisdom from senior Defence Force personnel who say it will put the lives of Australians at risk".

July 2013: Immigration minister Tony Burke said the Coalition's plan to increase offshore processing was effectively an admission "that turning back the boats won't work".

September 2013: The Abbott government is elected. It is criticised for refusing to reveal whether it is turning asylum seeker boats around. Acting opposition leader Chris Bowen said "the new government has worked out that turn-backs are going to be harder than they said they would be and they, therefore, won't be telling the Australian people when they're attempted".

November 2013: New Labor leader Bill Shorten declared "the Abbott government's border protection policy is in tatters," after immigration minister Scott Morrison revealed that Indonesia had twice rejected requests from the Abbott government to accept asylum seekers rescued by Australian authorities.

November 2013: Labor's immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the government's foreign policy "is in a state of disarray" after Indonesia refused to accept the turn-backs. "We have had Indonesia from day one saying that they won't accept tow-backs. It was inevitably going to fail. And that's what we saw."

October 2014: Mr Marles said if Indonesia was supportive of having boats turned back by Australian authorities, then Labor would consider it. Backbencher Stephen Jones said Labor's policy would not change and frontbencher Andrew Leigh said he remained "deeply concerned" about the diplomatic impact of the ­policy.

October 2014: Asked if turn-backs were having an impact on stopping deaths at sea, Mr Shorten said: "No, we don't see that the argument has been made or the evidence has been made out about boat turn-backs. Labor's policy hasn't changed."

October 2014: Mr Shorten addressed the issue at a caucus meeting, telling MPs the party's policy would not shift.

"I want to make it crystal clear there has been no change to Labor's policy on Tony Abbott's secret turn-backs. I can't be clearer than that," he said. "Labor is in favour of what works, what saves lives at sea, and Labor's regional arrangements have been working."

July 2015: Mr Shorten said it was clear that a combination of regional resettlement, offshore processing and turning back boats was defeating people smugglers.

"I can no longer escape the conclusion that, if Labor forms government, it needs to have all the options on the table," Mr Shorten told ABC television.

"It's not easy, though, because it involves the admission, I think, that mistakes were made when Labor was last in government."

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