Medivac could amount to the effective unravelling of regional processing, says Michael Pezzullo

The Home Affairs secretary says the Labor-backed medivac bill could amount to the “effective unravelling of regional processing”.

Home Affairs Department Secretary Michael Pezzullo. Picture: Gary Ramage

Department of Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo says the Labor-backed medivac bill could amount to the “effective unravelling of regional processing”, despite 11th hour changes that prevents it from being accessed by new boat arrivals.

Mr Pezzullo confirmed in Senate Estimates his department advised Scott Morrison in mid-December that Christmas Island should reopen if the Kerryn Phelps-inspired medivac bill becomes law.

He said the department gave similar advice to the Prime Minister last week, despite Bill Shorten moving amendments that gave the minister more discretion to block people from coming to Australia for medical treatment from Manus Island and Nauru.

Mr Pezzullo said the “black letter” facts of the laws was less important than the signal that Australian border protection policies were getting softer.

He also expects most people from Manus Island and Nauru to come to Australia under the legislation passed through the parliament last week.

“Our advice on the fly, through the course of last week, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday, was re-examined and on balance … that advice in the end had to be reconsidered in the light of those amendments,” Mr Pezzullo said.

“And it remained the view of the department … that, because the bill still dealt with — not only medical transfers but related to medical conditions that were evident in the diagnoses that the doctors would receive, but also a requirement to bring people here for assessment.

“It continued to be our view that this would potentially signal … the effective unravelling of regional processing because of the conjunction of treatment and assessment.

“It is our judgment that most people will come here.”

Mr Pezzullo said department engaged in contingency plans and advised on reopening Christmas Island over summer, based on the legislation passed in the Senate in December.

“Our concern that the legislation in prospect, as passed by the Senate in December, attached itself not only to people who were ill but to people who doctors in Australia would want to see for assessment,” Mr Pezzullo said.

“So for a reasonable first case basis you are looking at effectively the closure of regional processing and the transference of 1000 people on Manus.”

Mr Pezzullo said people did not need to be refugees to be sent to Australia for medical reasons under the legislation.

Department officials said 1246 people and their family members had been transferred to Australia form offshore detention centres for medical treatment since the Coalition won power in 2013. Of those, 282 were returned to offshore detention and the rest remain in Australia.

Mr Pezzullo said people who came to Australia for medical reasons were often engaged by lawyers who used the Federal Court to stop them from being sent back to Manus or Nauru.

“The practice of lawyers who are sympathetic to the notion of, not only should these people be brought here but they should remain here, have tended to intervene in those proceedings to ensure that those who are transferred here, for medical treatment or those who accompany them, are joined to those cases,” he said.

There are 431 people on Nauru, including 330 refugees, while there are 584 people on Manus Island, 330 of whom are refugees.