Julia Gillard is devilishly clever. Her asylum seeker policy is a masterstroke of improvisation. And she's tapping into community hostility to boat people with an empathy driven by Labor's focus groups, while keeping her tone oh-so reasonable, scolding Tony Abbott on the way through. No wonder some refugee advocates initially weren't sure whether to like or hate it.

The core of Gillard's policy is a proposed regional processing centre in East Timor. The ''Dili solution'' is a three-star version of its one-star ''Pacific solution'' cousin: the UNHCR would be involved (it only had a brief role in Nauru), New Zealand would be part of it, and East Timor is a signatory to the UN refugee convention (Nauru isn't).

But the bottom line of the two ''solutions'' is the same: install a deterrent by taking all boat arrivals to another country. Coming from a party that condemned John Howard's approach, Gillard's Dili solution would make a lesser leader blush. But as this election nears, shame is a missing ingredient.

Gillard has spoken this week to all potentially concerned in her regional processing plan, but with East Timor there is no deal, just a willingness to consider (though also some mixed messages). Still, that should be enough to get her to the election. In her speech, she managed simultaneously to put the problem in context (''last year, Australia received 0.6 per cent of the world's asylum seekers'') and show she understood those who blow it out of proportion.

Hard-working Australians wanted to know refugees settled here weren't getting special treatment, she said. ''People like my own [migrant] parents who have worked hard all their lives can't abide the idea that others might get an inside track to special privileges.'' Australians expected ''genuine refugees'' to ''learn the rules under which we live … We will ensure refugees shoulder the same obligations as Australians generally.''

All that should go down a treat in the marginal seats, especially as Gillard has encouraged people to vent their feelings without being constrained by political correctness.