He defended cosying up to former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa in order to stop the flow of asylum seeker boats.

Abbott made this observation in a 3700-word essay for the Quadrant magazine defending his foreign policy and defence credentials.

Abbott hailed his call not to join the "human rights lobby against the tough but probably unavoidable actions taken to end one of the world's most vicious civil wars".

"The government simply had to stop the boats. Our national interest and our self-respect as a country demanded it," he said.

The United Nations has been pushing for an investigation into allegations that up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed by Sri Lankan government troops in the final months of fighting in the civil war, which ended in 2009.

Acting opposition leader Tanya Plibersek was unimpressed with Abbott's analysis.

"I think it would be a good thing for the foreign minister to have a few words to Mr Abbott," she told reporters in Sydney.

(With inputs from SBS)