Camps will be empty – minister
PROPOSED changes to the way sick asylum seekers are transferred to Australia are designed to end the nation’s offshore processing system, according to Immigration Minister David Coleman.
The changes, in an amendment supported by Labor and crossbenchers, would ensure two specially-appointed doctors can request medical transfers for offshore asylum seekers to Australia.
A minister would then be required to review their case in 24 hours, and if they reject it an independent health advice panel would review it.
Despite Labor arguing the panel’s advice could be overruled by a minister on security grounds, Mr Coleman says the laws are designed to allow every asylum seeker detained offshore to be sent to Australia.
It would undermine the offshore processing system and lead to its demise, he says.
“Within weeks, it is highly likely — and that’s the advice that we’ve received — that substantially everyone who is currently on Manus and Nauru would come to Australia,” he told Sky News yesterday.
“The structure of this legislation is designed to undermine offshore processing to such a state that it no longer exists any more.”
He dodged questions about whether that suggests everyone in the offshore processing centres is unwell.
But Mr Coleman said the current process was effective, with doctors at offshore processing sites recommending transfers, which were then considered by the Home Affairs Department.
The Coalition has announced it will establish an independent health panel, which could ask bureaucrats to review individual cases, as an extra layer of oversight.
Labor has said it will look at advice from security agencies against the proposed changes as the party searchers for a “middle ground” with the Government.