Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is confident that the country's Migration Act would be far more effective through introduction of amendments that would legally allow the processing of asylum seekers by use of a well-defined partnership from a foreign country.

Embracing that optimism, Mr Abbott offered his cooperation to Prime Minister Julia Gillard for a compromise that could erase the recent setback suffered by the government's immigration policy when the Australian High Court ruled against plans to fly asylum seekers to Malaysia instead of locally processing them.

On Monday, Ms Gillard welcomed Abbott's initiatives but the Labour leader asked the opposition stalwart to qualify his actual propositions, which she said need to embrace a general solution and not just the Nauru answer that Abbott had earlier floated.

In an interview with ABC, Ms Gillard stressed she needs assurance that the legal framework of Abbott's suggestion is solid, adding that "what legal advice means is that we do need legislation to put beyond doubt offshore processing arrangements."

Clarifying his actual take and stand on the issue, according to Ms Gillard, will allow Abbott to lend a much vaunted legal stature on his suggestions.

"If Mr Abbott is sincere about this offer, he needs to make it very clear that he is talking about working with the Government on offshore processing generally, not on his narrow solution," the Prime Minister told ABC.

On his part, Abbott said that the Coalition stand is simple, which is the dumping of local processing for asylum seekers, a policy that Abbott said will only encourage more 'boat refugee' activities, and the adoption of his so-called third-country processing.

Abbott said that his terms are open for revisions if only to salvage the government's immigration program, which he noted is now in tatters following the High Court ruling last week.

However, the Opposition Leader has asserted that "offshore processing ... and third-party processing, is an important part of effective border protection."

His cooperation, Abbott added, will allow Ms Gillard to set in motion an effective border protection policy while at the same time afford the government for a much easier avenue that would make way for a third-country processing scheme.