Medivac allies split over where to send sick detainees

A split has opened between Labor and an alliance of Greens and key independents over the contentious medivac bill.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Picture: AAP

A split has opened between Labor and an alliance of Greens and key independents over the contentious medivac bill, as Bill Shorten is attacked for supporting refugees and asylum-seekers from Manus Island and Nauru being sent to Christmas Island.

The Opposition Leader said it was “fine” for transferees to receive treatment on the Australian territory under the medivac reforms, which give doctors greater powers to recommend a person come to Australia on medical grounds.

Department of Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo confirmed at Senate estimates on Monday it was the government’s policy to send any transferee to the Christmas Island detention centre, which is being reopened after the medivac bill passed parliament last week, unless a person needed to be sent to the mainland for specialised treatment.

He said the bill could amount to the “effective unravelling of regional processing” despite 11th-hour changes that prevented it being ­accessed by new boat arrivals.

The government’s position triggered outrage from the Greens and independents Kerryn Phelps, who championed the medivac bill, and Andrew Wilkie, triggering claims the Coalition had ignored the intent of the legislation and subverted democracy.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said his lower house colleague Adam Bandt would talk to crossbenchers as his party considered moving a motion of no confidence in the government, which would have no chance of succeeding without Labor’s support.

He also called on Mr Shorten as the alternative prime minister to “stand up and lay out an alternative agenda”, warning Christmas Island could not cope with the complex needs of refugees and asylum-seekers “who had been locked up indefinitely” in the offshore processing countries.

Mr Wilkie said he was appalled at the government’s disregard of the will of the parliament but also deeply disappointed Labor saw no problem with medical treatment being delivered on the island.

“This is another example of where the ALP is trying to walk both sides of the track, just like Adani where they support and oppose the mine at the same time,” he said.

Ms Phelps tweeted that the parliament determined that people too sick to receive treatment in offshore detention should come to Australia, not Christmas Island, for specialised treatment.

The legislation states that if an immigration minister approves the transfer of a person to Australia, an officer must, as soon as practicable, bring the person to Australia for the temporary purpose of medical or psychiatric ­assessment or treatment.

“Australia” under the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 can include Christmas Island.

“If the medical treatment is required and it’s delivered on Christmas Island and it makes people well, well that’s fine. The issue here is the safe treatment of people within the context of strong borders,” Mr Shorten said.

While he said a new Nauru law designed to prevent transfers based on overseas “telemedicine” assessments — a key plank of the medivac law — was a matter for the sovereign government, Mr Wilkie said he was “alarmed” by the development.

“I’m alarmed, but hardly surprised, that the Nauru government is a co-conspirator with the Australian government. It’s an open secret that Nauru does whatever Australia demands, so we can assume their response to the medevac bill was on instructions from Canberra,” he said.

Labor Left MP Terri Butler appeared to back in Mr Shorten’s position on Christmas Island, saying her main concern was the safety and life of people within Australia’s care.

“I’m not going to take issue with others forming a view about where that should be done but my perspective is it needs to be about the healthcare,” she told Sky News.

But senior Labor frontbencher and former immigration minister Brendan O’Connor said it would be consistent with current government practice for refugees and asylum-seekers to be transferred to the mainland for treatment.