Poll: Coalition could boost election chances by accepting NZ deal
THE majority of voters want Australia to accept a deal to transfer children from detention on Nauru, an exclusive poll commissioned by The Sunday Telegraph has found. It comes as leading mental health experts beg Prime Minister Scott Morrison to find a solution.
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SAVE the children: This is the overwhelming message voters have delivered the Coalition government in an exclusive poll on refugee policy.
While more than 60 per cent support strong border protection laws, the YouGov Galaxy poll also reveals 79 per cent of Australians want the government to transfer refugee children and their families from detention on Nauru and accept a longstanding offer from New Zealand to resettle them.
The poll, commissioned by The Sunday Telegraph, shows half believe resettling the families would be a step in the right direction and would not “open the floodgates” to new waves of refugees.
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It comes as the nation’s leading mental health experts and medical bodies beg Prime Minister Scott Morrison to find a solution for the families on Nauru.
Professors Patrick McGorry and Ian Hickie are among those calling on the Government to act saying it is pointless preventing deaths at sea if refugees to die as a result of their treatment in detention.
Prof McGorry, director of Melbourne University’s youth mental health centre and a former Australian of the Year, said he feared the children on Nauru would die if left in limbo.
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“Border protection policies have prevented deaths at sea, but we have seen people die of other causes as a result of the inability to resolve this situation,” Prof McGorry said.
“Protecting your borders is completely justifiable … but incarcerating people for long periods as a deterrent to others I personally find morally questionable, and it has very serious effects on people’s mental and physical health.”
With the Morrison government facing a possible wipe-out at the next federal election, the poll of 1027 voters across Australia also found the Coalition could boost its standing by accepting the New Zealand deal.
About one in four voters said they would be more likely to vote for the Coalition if it agreed to resettlement, while 44 per cent said it would not influence their vote.
Support for the plan was highest among the young, with more than a third of Millennials saying they would be more likely to vote for the Coalition, according to the poll, conducted between October 17 and 22.
Half of those questioned believe Australia had a moral obligation to find permanent homes for kids stuck on Nauru, including 61 per cent of younger voters.
The government has been under mounting pressure over the issue after doctors raised fears for their welfare.
Labor agreed last week to pass stalled legislation that would allow refugees to move to New Zealand as long as the proposed lifetime ban on coming to Australia was limited to refugees on Nauru.
The government said it needed the ban to ensure refugees would not use New Zealand as a backdoor to Australia.
The opposition also wanted a guarantee the government would accept the offer by New Zealand to take in 150 detainees from Manus Island and Nauru, which has been on the table since 2013.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not be “horse trading” and was working on a deal with crossbench MPs, who he needs after the government lost its one-seat majority.
“We are getting children off Nauru. We have been doing it for a long time with our agreement with the United States,” Mr Morrison said.
“We will continue to do that because we are determined to achieve that. We’re the government that stopped the boats coming, stopped putting children on to Nauru.”
Border Force says there are 652 asylum-seekers on Nauru, including 541 who have been found to be refugees, and 52 children.
Professor Hickie, co-director of Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre, said governments on both sides of politics had let Australians down.
“These kids are growing up in a situation of chronic, unresolved high stress,” Prof Hickie said.
“We’ll be apologising in five or 10 years time for our terrible behaviour as if we did not know.”
Prof Hickie visited Nauru at the request of a previous Australian government and said the level of care is “extremely limited’.
Associate Professor John Allan, from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and Australian Medical Association president Dr Tony Bartone also called for a permanent solution saying the detainees faced an increased risk of mental and physical illness, including premature cardiovascular disease and cancer, due to their time in detention.
“All sick children need to come off the island,” Prof Allan said.
“People can recover but the longer it goes on the harder it is.”
Dr Bartone said the situation had reached a crisis point and it had become untenable to keep this vulnerable group detained. “It’s important that we get all the children and their family off immediately and find a permanent solution for the rest of these people.”
“It’s been too long, it’s inappropriate and it’s not the care we’d expect by the Australian government.”