Independent ACT Senator David Pocock and the Greens have slammed efforts to fix an "administrative error" that requires the Labor government to reauthorise Nauru as an offshore immigration processing country.
Leader of the government business in the Senate Katy Gallagher is introducing a motion in the Senate to extend processing asylum seekers on Nauru on Tuesday, after the original legislation had hit its 10-year sunset in October.
But the instrument that was supposed to alert the Department of Home Affairs lapsed and was not picked up until December, after which it was handed to Minister Claire O'Neil.
A spokesman for Ms O'Neil said the motion in the Senate was a "routine re-designation".
"There has been no impact on Operation Sovereign Borders or on the cases of the people who are currently on Nauru," the spokesman said.
The department has stressed it has taken "immediate actions" to improve administrative processes to ensure more effective monitoring and tracking of all instruments.
It includes a new reporting regime and regular spot checks.
The motion looks like it will pass the Senate with the support of both Labor and the opposition.
It is also attracting criticism from ACT Independent Senator David Pocock alongside the Greens.
Mr Pocock said the "last thing" he wanted to see was a return to "failed" border policies of the past that cost hundreds of lives.
"However at the same time it also makes no sense to be paying $420 million of taxpayer money over three years to detain a small group of people," Mr Pocock said.
"We can do better as a country and clearly need a more humane and more efficient way of dealing with refugees in our region."
There are 66 people being held on Nauru according to the most recent Home Affairs figures.
The Labor Government is working to process these people and find third party countries to resettle them into.
The Greens have instead introduced a Bill to expedite the evacuation of all remaining 150 people on both Nauru and Papua New Guinea to Australia until they can be resettled elsewhere.
It comes as Kurdish journalist and refugee Behrouz Boochani renewed his call for a Royal Commission into the "detention industry" as part of a visit to Canberra on Tuesday.
Mr Boochani, who was held in detention on Manus Island for six years before being re-settled in New Zealand, was in parliament to lend his support to the Greens' Bill.
Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim said his party had also been calling for a Royal Commission into offshore and onshore immigration detention.
There have been 14 deaths as a result of offshore detention since 2013, with other reports of abuse, medical negligence and high levels of self-harm under the system.
Mr Boochani said he wanted an investigation into the " systematic torture" under the system.
"We really haven't seen a proper and an independent investigation towards these deaths," Mr Boochani said.
"But I think we still don't know who is behind this, you know, who is running this. So I think it's very important that everyone should know what happened."
Mr Boochani pointed to a $422 million contract that the department recently awarded to a US-based company to manage asylum seekers on Nauru.
"That is ridiculous. That is unbelievable. A huge amount of money, and what are they going to do? What is their plan?" Mr Boochani said
"They say that all in the end, [the government will] evacuate everyone. How many years do you want to keep these people in detention?"
