Kerryn Phelps to lobby Senate crossbench on Medivac bill

Kerryn Phelps has returned to Canberra to lobby the crossbench on the controversial legislation.

Former MP Kerryn Phelps. Picture: AAP

Former independent MP Kerryn Phelps will lobby key crossbenchers — including Jacqui Lambie — not to repeal the contentious Medivac legislation, urging them to “open their mind and hearts to the plight of people on Manus Island and Nauru”.

A government bill to repeal the Medivac laws, named the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019, will be introduced to the House of Representatives on Thursday and is set to be put to a vote in the Senate this month.

In Canberra for the first time since losing the May 18 election, Dr Phelps blamed her loss in part on the voters of Wentworth feeling less angry towards the Liberal Party about Malcolm Turnbull’s ousting.

“It was very close … It took a couple of days for the count to establish it (the seat of Wentworth) was going to return to the Liberal Party,” Dr Phelps said outside Parliament House.

“There was one factor that the level of anger about Malcolm Turnbull’s ousting had subsided to an extent, not with everybody but certainly to an extent. There was a very much a mindset of people in Wentworth not wanting a Labor government in the majority. These things are quite often complicated.”

Dr Phelps said she would try and have discussions with Senator Lambie and the new member for Warringah, independent MP Zali Steggall, plus others to urge them to “support and defend” the Medivac bill.

“Understand that it does not need to be changed and that we can have Australia’s immigration policy, we can have our refugee policy but separate to this we need to make sure that people who are under Australia’s responsibility on Manus and Nauru are getting the healthcare they need. This is not an either or situation,” she said.

If Labor and the Greens oppose repealing the bill, which gives doctors new powers to recommend that an asylum-seeker or refugee on Manus Island or Nauru be transferred to Australia for medical treatment, the government will need to win over four of the six Senate crossbenchers.

Centre Alliance is opposed to repealing the bill but the government has South Australian senator Cory Bernardi on side.

It will also need to convince Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie and One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts to back a repeal.

Labor’s caucus today resolved to maintain its support for medivac and acknowledge the legislation was working.

A recent Federal Court ruling found a doctor did not have to speak directly to an asylum-seeker, in person or via teleconference, in order to recommend their transfer.

Dr Phelps endorsed the ruling, saying it was not unusual for doctors to assess a patient by looking at their medical records.

“It’s not something that we should think is unusual or weird or in any way undermines clinical excellence. In fact it’s one of the things that underpins clinical excellence in the healthcare system,” she said.

“This is how we deal with expert witness reports in the courts here in Australia where there is a question about medical treatment. This is how we deal with remote medicine where a person can’t necessarily be seen or spoken to directly, or where a patient for example is unconscious.”

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has claimed “advocate doctors” are calling the shots and people of bad character have been transferred to Australia under the Medivac laws, as the government seeks to challenge the Federal Court ruling.

Mr Dutton also said the court ruling opened the “floodgates”, after he and several cabinet ministers declared in March when the bill was given royal assent that there would be hundreds of applications for a transfer within weeks.

Dr Phelps and Labor have rejected Mr Dutton’s claims.

As of late last month, there had been 22 transfers under the medivac bill. Another eight people were waiting transfer.

There are 512 people still on Manus Island, including 393 refugees and 119 non-refugees, and 332 on Nauru, including 242 refugees and 80 non-refugees.

Ms Lambie’s office said she did not have a meeting scheduled with Dr Phelps.