Senate committee says medivac laws should be overturned

Senate committee says ALP-backed legislation should be overturned due to problems with process, security.

Former MP Kerryn Phelps was one of the architects of the medivac bill. Picture: AAP

A government-dominated committee says Labor-backed medivac 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.

A report by the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee today also cited an alleged spike in self-harm by detainees in Papua New Guinea as an argument to repeal the laws.

But Labor senators on the committee were standing firm, issuing a dissenting report blasting a government repeal bill as “solely an expression of the government’s political agenda”.

The dissenting report said the medivac laws, which make it easier for doctors to medically-evacuate refugees and asylum-seekers to Australia, were working well and “do not need to be ‘repaired’.”

Greens and Centre Alliance issued their own dissenting reports opposing the government repeal bill.

Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie, will have the deciding vote on the bill, said she would spend the weekend reading the report before deciding whether to side with the government or maintain the status quo.

The main committee report said the medevac laws restricted the government’s ability to “make decisions in Australia’s national interest”.

The report said the bill imposed no provision to force the return of medically-evacuated refugees to regional processing centres once treatment was concluded, and noted evidence from the Department of Home Affairs that court proceedings were underway to allow 1000 transferred individuals to stay in Australia.

Government committee members also expressed concern that the bill imposed “strictly limited grounds for refusal in relation to security and character concerns”.

“The committee understands the minister has already been forced to approve the transfer of six individuals who were ‘of security or character concern’, because the concerns did not meet the strict grounds upon which the minister may refuse a transfer under the provisions,” the report said.

It said evidence from Home Affairs suggested there had been an “upwards trend” in self-harm by detainees on Manus Island from late 2018 through 2019, with a spike in incidents from April 2019 until August 2019.

However, one of the bill’s architects, the former MP Kerryn Phelps, told the committee the “government’s rhetoric and statements about repealing the legislation triggered another level of hopelessness and a new round of self-harm”.

Labor senators said: “When the provisions were introduced, the government claimed that they were a green light to people smugglers and would result in a new surge of boat arrivals. That has not happened.”