People smugglers won’t get through me, warns Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison says he has strengthened Operation Sovereign Borders amid ‘radical’ reduction in ministerial power.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Forico Nursery at Somerset, North West Tasmania on Saturday. Picture: Chris Kidd

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says “people smugglers know they won’t get through me and Peter Dutton” but would “have a crack” if Opposition Leader Bill Shorten became prime minister.

That was the latest message on Saturday from the Prime Minister, who is highlighting differences between the Coalition and Labor on border security amid fears of an increase in boats.

Mr Morrison said the government had “increased the strength, resource and capability again of Operation Sovereign Borders” after the medivac legislation passed parliament this week against his wishes.

It comes after The Weekend Australian revealed Attorney-General Christian Porter was warning ministerial discretio­n over medical transfers from Manus Island and Nauru had been “radically” reduced after the medivac bill became law, amid vows from Anthony Albanese that Labor will not make any more changes to Operation Sovereign Borders.

A Weekend Australian photographer also captured the arrival of Serco guards on Christmas Island late last night, for the reopening of the mothballed immigration detention centre.

Serco guards arrive on Christmas Island late on Friday to reopen and staff the island’s shuttered immigration detention centre. Picture: NewsCorp

Mr Morrison today said he had been “forced” to act on Home Affairs advice to reopen the detention facility at Christmas Island to “deal with that decision” on the medivac bill.

“Now, I can’t describe to you the fury that is within me that I have to now go spend money on opening a centre that I didn’t need to open a week ago,” he told reporters in Somerset, northwest Tasmania, on Saturday.

Advice released by the government said the cost of reopening Christmas Island would be more than $1 billion over several years.

Mr Morrison made reference to reports by Nine newspapers about people smugglers sending a surge of boats to test Labor’s resolve.

He said the people smugglers “are preparing to do that as we speak”.

“That’s not me saying it. That’s them saying it. That’s people smugglers going back up the chain to Pakistan. We have other people who are ready to put boats again out of Indonesia talking openly about it,’’ the Prime Minister said.

Asylum power ‘radically’ reduced

Attorney-General Christian said the government would have to deal with 300 applications from refugees and asylum-seekers in offshore processing to come to Australia for treatment in the “next several weeks” after Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers combined to give an independe­nt panel of doctors powers to overrule the minister to recommend medical transfers.

“We will be on a very tight time frame to try and work out the types of backgrounds, criminal history checks (of potential transferees) … But we are already aware of people who have been charged for ­assaulting doctors offshore and we won’t have the discretion to stop them from coming,” Mr Porter told the Nine Network.

“Ministerial discretion exists but it is considerably narrower, radically narrower. So it’s the case now that a person charged with a serious criminal offence, or where there’s a reasonable grounds based on intelligence that they’d committe­d a serious criminal offence­, there is now no power for the ­(immigration) minister to refuse­ that person.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter.

Mr Albanese said Mr Porter’s claims were “absolute nonsense”, as he insisted there would be no more changes to border protectio­n policies under a future Labor government.

Last night, Indonesia weighed into the contentious debate, with the nation’s foreign industry spokesman taking a veiled swipe at the Morrison government for failing to discuss the new medivac law or to relay its decision to reopen the Christmas Island detention centre. “Usually for policies and laws which might impact another country the said policies are consulted with the relevant country, but in this case the law was not communicated with us,” Arrmanatha Nasir said.

“Irregular migration is not an issue which a single country can solve alone. We believe issues related to irregular migration can only be solved through co-operation between countries.”

Under the medivac bill the doctors’ recommendation to transfer a refugee stands unless the minister deems that the transferee represent­s a threat under the ASIO Act or has been sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment.

“The minister will have no discretion to refuse the transfer of a person who is facing serious criminal charges in Nauru or Manus or whose identity is unknown,” ­Immigration Minister David Coleman said.

“If someone is not willing to assist the government in accurately verifying their identity, that raises serious character concerns, but under Bill Shorten’s law they will be on their way to Aust­ralia within a matter of weeks.”

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said that once a person’s treatment was complete they should return to Manus Island or Nauru, but they must then be “very quickly resettled in third countries”.

“Labor welcomes the number of people who have been resettled in the US, but it is beyond belief that the Liberals continue to refuse New Zealand’s offer to resettle other refugees from Manus Island and Nauru,” she said.

- with AAP