Medivac sham weakens border

Since medivac laws came into effect in February, only 13 medical-transfer detainees — out of 135 brought to this country — have been hospitalised. According to Operation Sovereign Borders head Major General Craig Furini none of those transferred is now in hospital, five had refused treatment and 43 had refused X-rays or pathology tests. At Senate estimates on Monday, he revealed six people had been transferred to Australia under the controversial law despite security concerns, and two others had been approved for transfer despite similar character worries. Home Affairs Department secretary Mike Pezzullo told the hearing it was a “grievous flaw in the legislation” that detainees could be brought to Australia for assessment without the ability to return them to offshore processing. He said since 2013 there had been 1117 medical transfers from Papua New Guinea and Nauru, with “only a handful” sent back.

Scott Morrison went to the May 18 election pledging to ditch the medivac laws; in July, the Coalition’s repeal bill passed the house and was sent to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. On Friday the government-dominated committee said the laws should be overturned due to the lack of any process to return medically evacuated refugees to offshore locations, and limits on ministerial discretion to reject transfers on security grounds. It also noted an alleged spike in self-harm by detainees in PNG as an argument to repeal the laws. Dissenting Labor senators said the laws were working well and the repeal bill was “solely an expression of the government’s political agenda”. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton calls the current arrangements a “con”, with the bill — championed by former independent MP Kerryn Phelps and others — always being a way of getting people here from Nauru or Manus Island through the “back door”.

Medivac provisions weaken our borders and could restart illegal arrivals by boat; 1200 people lost their lives at sea after Labor eased controls in 2008. As the system stands, or rather fails, even the minister cannot prevent some suspect individuals from entering the country. Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally keeps raising the furphy of an onshore refugee “crisis” via people arriving by air; it is a wilful distraction, crude and a curious tactic for Labor to again present itself as soft on border policy. When the repeal bill comes before the upper house next month, crossbench senators — with Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie likely to be the deciding vote — should emphatically support stronger borders.