Jeremy Thompson

Updated September 01, 2011 14:38:50

Former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson predicts a dire political future for Julia Gillard.

Video: Government scrambles after Malaysia deal scuttled (ABC News)

Related Story: Asylum strategy in tatters after court ruling

Former Labor minister and party powerbroker Graham Richardson says Julia Gillard will be "finished" as Prime Minister before the next election.

Mr Richardson was speaking on Melbourne radio station 3AW in the wake of the High Court's decision to reject the Government's Malaysian solution for asylum seekers and in light of rock-bottom opinion polls.

"It's way too late for her," Mr Richardson told 3AW.

"There's no way she can turn this around. You've got to say it gets worse for her every single day, never gets better, just gets worse."

Mr Richardson painted a dire picture for his former party, saying there are now "no good options" for Labor.

"The reality is those three independents [Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie] have a deal with Julia Gillard, not with the Government, and not with the Labor Party," he said.

"They've always indicated that if you change leaders the deal's off, so you go straight out of Government if you change leaders."

But he said the deal with the independents would only give Ms Gillard a temporary stay of execution as leader.

Mr Richardson predicted independent Andrew Wilkie would withdraw his support if his pokie reform bill is not passed by the middle of next year.

"I'd say it [Gillard's leadership] has got 10 months or so to run - but I can't see it running much longer than that," he said.

"It's damaging the psyche of too many Australians and over time that can damage the country, because that will make people retreat more into themselves and spend less."

He said the Malaysian solution was an "odd" contradiction for the Government.

"It always relied upon as a basis saying the Malaysians were terrible and it was a really shocking place to go, and if you don't have the right credentials to come here we'll send you to Malaysia - it's like saying we'll send you to hell," he said.

"The Malaysians were pretty amazing to me to ever accept it."

Hockey attack

Meanwhile, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey also targeted Ms Gillard, saying the buck stopped with her on the failed swap deal.

"She said she was going to stop the boats, she said one of the reasons that she politically executed Kevin Rudd was because she wanted to have a solution to stop the boats," Mr Hockey told ABC radio in Melbourne.

He said he was "outraged" about the Malaysia solution "from a humanitarian perspective".

"Human beings are not football cards. You don't swap them. And that's what Julia Gillard and her Government tried to do. We'll give you 800 and you give us 4,000," he said.

"Now we find we are receiving 4,000 [and] it's going to cost us $200 million to receive those 4,000."

Mr Hockey said Australia's reputation in the region was "in tatters".

"Not only did we insult the East Timorese by not asking them about the East Timor Solution, not only did we offend the Papua New Guineans by saying we're going to reopen Manus without getting government approval from them, not only did we stop food supplies to Indonesia overnight, we've now entered into a deal with Malaysia and the Government has acted ultra vires (beyond their powers)," he said.

"How extraordinarily embarrassing for us."

Labor stalwart says Gillard 'finished' - ABC Newcastle NSW - Australian Broadcasting Corporation