Can Australia stop the boats?

Asylum seekers keep coming by boat to Australia and recently on of the boats sank with sadly, loss of life. A simple answer to the question above is probably no. Policies like those presented will not stop the boats. Mr Abbott talks about the time with the Howard Government and the policies then stopped the boats, the problem with this is that there were less people seeking asylum and therefore less boats, so it probably wasn't the policies. The only way to stop the boats is to blow them out of the water, or send the refugees straight back from whence they came. This is too drastic! What needs to be done is to find out why Australia and just how desperate they are to get to Australia. I heard an interview with a successful refugee who suggested a processing centre in Indonesia, he thought this would work because most asylum seekers come through Indonesia. The boats will not be stopped, but it can be made safer for the refugees, and that is the point