Political parties are too concerned with point scoring to find a solution for the refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru, Liberal MP Julia Banks has said, calling for the immediate transfer of children and families to Australia.
Banks, who is the first Liberal MP to make the demand publicly, said what was once a “defensible argument” from the Coalition government in maintaining strong borders had been weakened.
“We could have made progress this week with the New Zealand solution, but the parties are too concerned to not back down on their position to make concessions so that we can find a solution,” she told parliament on Thursday afternoon.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, had flagged accepting New Zealand’s offer to take 150 refugees a year – if Labor helped to pass legislation enacting a lifetime ban on any of them getting a visa to visit Australia. He then rescinded that after Labor requested amendments.
“In the past months, the political games and distractions of both parties have disgracefully played out in this place and in the meantime the situation on Nauru with sick children has reached a crisis point,” Banks said on Thursday.
She said the major parties should put aside “political point-scoring, horse-trading, combative politics and trying to think of the next clever wedge”.
“This issue comes down to a simple truth – it is our humanitarian obligation to get these children and their families off Nauru,” she said.
Banks called for their immediate transfer in a “one-off act of grace”, asking MPs to look at the situation “through the prism of a child’s years, not in adult’s years”.
Many of the children have lived most, or all, of their life on Nauru.
There are more than 50 children still on Nauru, after 29 were transferred in the past 10 days. The majority of transfers have required the federal court’s intervention – which the government has spent $780,000 responding to since July 2017.
It is now challenging the court’s right to hear those cases.
Banks said Labor’s “greatest shame” was the thousands of people who drowned at sea, and that the Coalition had successfully “stopped the boats” and maintained strong border policies, but continuing to argue over this was doing nothing to help.
“What was a defensible argument in the past is weakened now with the current facts.”
She said the US arrangement was proof that such a deal did not spark a resurgence of boats, and nor would the New Zealand offer.
Banks also said it was wrong to say the children were not in detention, directly contradicting the government’s line that people on Nauru have not been detained since the centre was technically opened in 2015.
The federal government is becoming increasingly isolated in its refusal to bring people to Australia or accept New Zealand’s offer to settle 150 refugees a year.
A coalition of charities has given the government until 20 November to get all children and their families off Nauru.
The Australian Medical Association, medical colleges and almost 6,000 individual doctors, as well as legal groups, the UNHCR, opposition political parties and independent MPS, have all made the same or similar call – with some also expressing concern for adults not on Nauru with their family.
On Thursday a department official who quit his job over the policies urged the government to sensibly assess its arguments as it was clear the boats were stopped by the policy of turnbacks, not the “tragic” and “meaningless” ongoing detention of people.
The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has repeatedly said a single act of compassion could undo “overnight” the success in stopping boats.
Banks began her speech by describing the mood at parliament during the national apology to victims of institutional child sexual abuse on Monday. It was engulfed with high emotion, much love and sadness, she said.
“I thought to myself in 10, 20 or 30 years time I don’t want any Australian have to watch a national apology by the Australian government of the day about the children and families currently on Nauru. I know I am not the only member of parliament who felt this way on Monday.”
