Labor’s back doorway will restart the boats: Dutton

Home Affairs Minister accuses ALP of supporting a policy that will end offshore detention of asylum seekers by stealth.

Home Affairs Peter Dutton says the Labor party’s medical transfer bill is a “back doorway” for asylum seekers.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has accused the Labor party of supporting a policy that will end offshore detention of asylum seekers and restart the boats.

Mr Dutton has hit out at the opposition’s support of a bill to urgently transfer sick asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru to Australia, saying border protection would “collapse” under Labor and “the boats will restart”.

“What Labor is proposing here is a back doorway to end regional processing. That is one of the three limbs that has stopped the boats,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Brisbane on Saturday.

The comments come after Labor offered conditional support for crossbencher Kerryn Phelps’s bill earlier this week, before the legislation was delayed by the government in a bid to duck a historic loss in the House of Representatives. The proposed laws, being driven by Sydney MP Dr Phelps, would allow critically ill refugees to be flown to Australia for medical treatment on the advice of two doctors.

Labor’s finance spokesman Jim Chalmers hit back at Mr Dutton, saying the Liberals were making up “desperate lies”.

“The fact is, Labor will never let the people smugglers back into business,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“The urgent medical transfer amendments that passed the Senate this week are about making sure sick children and adults get the medical care they need.” The home affairs minister still has “ultimate discretion” over transfers, Mr Chalmers said.

“The legislation enshrines the minister’s discretion to reject transfers - currently the government makes ad hoc decisions often rejecting medical advice,” he said.

The Weekend Australian today 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.

Labor’s Left caucus is expected to meet meet late next week, shortly ­before the conference, to finalise key amendments to the platform.

It is understood senior Labor MPs have expressed concerns that the nexus between the ­Coalition and Labor on border protection was at risk of shattering after the opposition supported rule changes that would allow asylum-seekers entry into Australia with the approval of doctors and an independent medical panel.

Bill Shorten yesterday rejected claims Labor was softening its position on border protection amid criticism from the Prime Minister, who warned that the opposition’s support for doctor-ordered medical evacuations to Australia would “abolish offshore processing as we know it”.

“We will turn back boats where it is safe to do so. We will still keep offshore processing full stop,” the Opposition Leader said.

“But if Mr Morrison is trying to argue that the only way you have borders, protections, is not to provide timely medical treatment to some asylum-seekers on Manus and Nauru, that’s rubbish.’’

In his first comments on Mr Shorten’s shift on refugee policy, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told The Weekend Aus­tralian “exactly as Kevin Rudd did; Bill Shorten is lying to the Australian people about Labor’s boats policy”.

- with AAP