Peter Dutton says Ged Kearney’s comments show wheels are falling off Labor’s asylum policy

New Labor MP Ged Kearney’s attack on asylum-seeker policy shows its border policies are in disarray, Peter Dutton says.

Labor member for Batman Ged Kearney makes her maiden speech in the House of Representatives today. Picture: AAP

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says the wheels are falling off the opposition’s border protection policies, after new Labor MP Ged Kearney blasted the bipartisan asylum policy as “shameful”.

In her maiden speech today, the Member for Batman blasted criticised the commitment to preventing asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru from coming to Australia.

Ms Kearney said she would commit herself to the cause of humane refugee policy during her time in the parliament.

“I cannot comprehend how a nation that provided a safe home to so many in the wake of World War II — including our large Jewish community of Holocaust survivors — allowed the Tampa and the“children overboard” scandal to evolve into the shameful policy of indefinite detention on Manus and Nauru,” the former ACTU president said.

“Racist dog-whistling has demonised and vilified a community that has everything to give to Australia — and the sacrifice of this human potential has been made solely for political gain.”

Mr Dutton seized on the comments tonight.

“Labor now has a majority of its members in caucus who are opposed to stopping the boats and we see on the Mediterranean thousands of people still dying — so this problem for Australia has not gone away,” he told the Nine Network.

“The fact that Mr Shorten now has the same problem that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard did, says that Mr Shorten hasn’t got a coherent policy on stopping the boats and I think most Australians would shake their heads at these comments today.

“Mr Shorten hasn’t got the leadership ability to haul these people into line and to keep the policy that has stopped kids from going into detention, stopped drownings at sea and make sure that boats don’t restart.”

In her speech today Ms Kearney said Australia was a rich country that could afford to take more refugees.

Her speech ups the pressure on Labor leader Bill Shorten ahead of the upcoming ALP conference, where the party’s left-faction will seek to soften its support for offshore processing.

She called for more money to be spent on foreign aid to support people as they fled conflict, and better resettlement support for refugees in Australia.

Ms Kearney was elected in a by-election in March, holding the seat for Labor against the Greens after the resignation of former member David Feeney, who was unable to prove he was not a dual citizen.

She lamented her seat was named after John Batman, “a rogue, thief, cheat, and liar, a murderer of blacks and the vilest man I have ever known”, according to the artist John Glover.

She said she and thousands of voters in her electorate would prefer the seat to be named after 1850s Wurrundjeri leader Simon Wonga.