Bill Shorten ‘doesn’t understand what he’s doing’ with Nauru medical evacuations: PM

Bill Shorten “doesn’t understand what’s he doing” by supporting medical evacuations of sick adults from Nauru, PM says.

Bill Shorten won’t cave in to demands to soften Labor’s border policy, Tony Burke says. Picture Kym Smith

Bill Shorten “doesn’t even understand what’s he doing” by supporting medical evacuations of sick adults from Nauru, Scott Morrison says.

The Prime Minister all but ruled out calling an early election to avoid losing a vote in the House of Representative on amendments allowing the evacuation of asylum seekers based on the advice of two doctors.

“The government must be in control of border protection policy. I mean, you can’t contract that out to two doctors on Skype,” he told reporters in Sydney today.

“You can’t do that, it undermines the whole system.”

Mr Morrison said he hoped Labor would “come to its senses” on its support for the amendments when parliament returns in February.

“Bill Shorten doesn’t even understand what he’s doing. I don’t think that he really fully contemplates the compromise that he is putting in to effectively abolish offshore processing as we know it,” he told reporters in Sydney today.

“What they’re proposing would weaken it. I know it will. Because I was the minister who put it all together and made sure that it worked.”

Mr Morrison last week called the Opposition Leader a “clear and present threat to national security” over his support for the Nauru medivacs amendments.

.@ScottMorrisonMP on the Labor-backed bill to fast track medical evacuations from Manus Island and Nauru: This is not about protecting children. You cannot 'outsource' border protection to 'two doctors on @Skype.'

MORE: https://t.co/w20YpfgbHp #weekendlive pic.twitter.com/BEtQ3mX8EW

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) December 9, 2018

If the House had not risen before the amendments had passed the Senate, which they ultimately did, Mr Morrison would have faced the prospect of being the first Prime Minister to lose on legislation in the House since the Second World War.

When asked if he would stick to delivering a federal budget on April 2 next year and then holding an election after, Mr Morrison said: “Yes.”

“That’s what I said. No change to my position.”

Shorten won’t cave in on turnbacks: Burke

Mr Shorten will fight any attempts to soften border protection policy on boat turnbacks at Labor’s national conference, manager of opposition business Tony Burke says.

“Every national conference, there are some delegates who push for this,” Mr Burke told Sky News this morning.

“At every national conference, there has been a determination to ensure that we do not adopt any policy that will start the drownings again.

“If you stop the turnbacks policy, and I don’t think there’s any doubt, from the evidence I’ve seen ... drownings would commence again.”

The Weekend Australian revealed Labor’s Left faction will push to fast-track refugee medical transfers to Australia through a change to the party platform at next weekend’s ALP national conference as Scott Morrison sets up an election showdown on border security.

.@Tony_Burke on Nauru: My view when numbers change on the floor – is that you need to focus on the issue.

There is a real problem if you have a government that is willing to ignore medical advice the way @PeterDutton_MP is.

MORE: https://t.co/yDhsMBafXa #SpeersonSunday pic.twitter.com/NBuKWIGikA

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) December 8, 2018

Mr Burke, a former immigration minister under Julia Gillard, said this morning that the Nauru evacuation amendments proposed in parliament last week would not soften border protection policy.

“The full breadth of the ASIO Act, if there’s any national security risk to bring anyone here at all, would apply,” he told Sky News.

“What the minister would no longer be able to do is simply say I am not going to look at what the doctors are recommending. And that’s the big shift.”

.@Tony_Burke on Nauru: The principle is not that somebody gets transferred to Australia and gets to live here permanently. The principle is – someone gets transferred for the medical treatment on the basis that they are in our care.

MORE:https://t.co/yDhsMBafXa #SpeersonSunday pic.twitter.com/WTiKuclvt6

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) December 8, 2018

Asked this morning why the contentious medical evacuation amendments could not be resolved before the end of the parliamentary year, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blamed Labor for cutting off the debate.

“Parliament rose in accordance with its normal schedule, what took the time was the amendments that both the government and the crossbenchers moved. Labor guillotined debate,” Mr Frydenberg told the ABC Insiders program on Sunday.

“When the Labor Party puts up bad policy — the policy which will unravel our offshore protection procedures as we know it — we will fight them every step of the way.”