Kids off Nauru is No.1 priority if Kerryn Phelps wins

Kerryn Phelps has declared lobbying for children to get off Nauru will be her ‘first order of business’ if she wins Wentworth.

Independent candidate for Wentworth Kerryn Phelps at North Bondi Life Saving Club, on Saturday. Picture: AAP

Kerryn Phelps has declared lobbying for children to get off Nauru will be her “first order of business” if she wins Wentworth, as Liberal MPs warn Scott Morrison against watering down the government’s tough border protection policies.

Dr Phelps said New Zealand was an “extremely good option” for the destination of children, as pressure builds on Labor to back legislation that would prevent the “back-door entry” to Australia.

“The first order of business is to get the kids off Nauru with their families to Australia for urgent medical and psychological help, and I join the Australian Medical Association’s call and my thousands of colleagues who have been calling for this,” Dr Phelps told the ABC.

“The resettlement options should be explored and New Zealand is an extremely good option and it’s definitely something I’d like to look at, the foreign policy and other implications of that decision, but certainly it’s a very ­attractive decision.”

Manager of opposition business Tony Burke said it was yet to be seen whether Scott Morrison intended to introduce legislation to the Senate that would ban ­asylum-seekers transferred from Nauru to New Zealand from ever coming to Australia.

Labor and the Greens oppose the proposal.

“We’re yet to find out whether that was just something he was saying in advance of the Wentworth by-election, or whether it’s something he actually believes,” Mr Burke said.

Immigration Minister David Coleman was last week sounding out the support of the Senate crossbench for a bill that would stop the back-door entry and pave the way for the Prime Minister ­allowing offshore asylum-seekers to be settled in New Zealand.

Mr Morrison said yesterday he would try to work with the crossbench to get children off Nauru.

“The government does not want to see children on Nauru,” he said. “We didn’t put them there. The Labor Party’s failed policies put them there. In fact we’re the party that has closed detention centres, got children out of detention, stopped the tragic and horrific deaths at sea, and we are very well placed, and I am in particular very well placed, to ensure we get the balance right, to ensure we provide compassion and support, particularly for children.”

Liberal MP Alex Hawke said the New Zealand option should be considered only if the back-door entry was blocked. “We have tried very hard to find a solution that will mean there are no more people left on Nauru or Manus, and that is the US deal — that is still progressing.”