Liberal MPs plead with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to free asylum-seeker children from Nauru

FEDERAL Liberal MPs are pleading with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to stage an urgent humanitarian intervention to get more than 80 children and their asylum-seeking parents off Nauru.

FEDERAL Liberal MPs are pleading with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to stage an urgent humanitarian intervention to get more than 80 children and their asylum-seeking parents off Nauru.

Three government backbenchers — Russell Broadbent, Craig Laundy and Julia Banks — have told the Herald Sun they believe the situation in the Pacific island detention centre has now reached a “tipping point”.

They say a groundswell of public support, including from doctors and churches, has given the Morrison Government an opportunity to offer a compassionate solution without weakening border security or abandoning refugee boat turnbacks.

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Mr Broadbent and Mr Laundy met Mr Morrison last month to ask for all of the children and their ­families to be brought to Australia, giving priority to the children who need urgent medical treatment.

Under their proposal, the asylum seekers, who are mainly from Sri Lanka, Iran, and Afghanistan, would be in Australia only temporarily — either in detention or on community bridging visas — until they were resettled in a third nation.

They have told the Prime Minister they have no interest in damaging the government by crossing the floor in parliament, and their focus is only on the welfare of the children.

Mr Broadbent told the Herald Sun: “This is an embarrassing ­humanitarian crisis that the government needs to resolve in a manner acceptable to the Australian people.”

Children on Nauru. Picture: Supplied

Federal Liberal MP Craig Laundy. Picture: AAP/Mick Tsikas

Federal Liberal MP Russell Broadbent. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Laundy said he had sensed a change of mood in his electorate and had relayed that to Mr Morrison. “I’ve had doctors sit in my office and run me through specifics, which I’m extremely uneasy with,” he said.

Growing support for a radical shift has reached Cabinet: two ministers told the Herald Sun they backed it.

One said: “It’s crossed the threshold, and something must be done as soon as possible.” The other agreed, saying: “It is not straightforward but the tide has turned. These kids have been there far too long.”

Melanie, 3, and her baby brother, Liam, have spent their entire lives on Nauru.

Her mother told World ­Vision, through an interpreter: “It is so difficult to live in Nauru. I wish on nobody that they are stuck here like us.”

The PM told parliament yesterday 418 people had been resettled from Manus and Nauru to the United States, and 65 health professionals, 33 of them in mental health, were contracted by the government to provide services.

“Decisions about medical transfers are made on a caseby case basis,” Mr Morrison said.

“(Transfers) only run the risk of inviting more people to risk their lives at sea and (our) having to stop the boats. Having stopped the boats, we’re not going to start them again.”

Children on Nauru. Picture: Supplied

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Kym Smith

But another six government MPs have also told the Herald Sun yesterday they were “deeply uncomfortable”, and the government must find a ­solution as soon as possible.

Almost 6000 doctors have signed an open letter to Mr Morrison supporting the call from the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australia College of Physicians and 12 other medical colleges to immediately transfer children and their families from Nauru to appropriate medical care.

It’s understood up to 22 children in the centre are ­refusing food or fluid. Up to a dozen more are reported to have resignation syndrome, a trauma-induced ment­al condition in which a child withdraws completely, ceasing to walk or talk, or open their eyes.

Ms Banks, the Member for Chisholm in Victoria, said she’d listened to doctors and informed people, and transferring the children to Australia would be “based only on humanitarian grounds”. She said: “I really believe it comes from the hearts and minds of the Australian people.”

Queensland MP Warren Entsch said he was “not comfortable” and had raised concerns with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, but had been assured that all children who were still on Nauru were there because of objections of a parent unable to come to Australia for security reasons.

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