Labor's immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann has slammed the government's move. Credit:Andrew Meares An MP who attended said the meeting was held to voice "concerns that a larger number of MPs have about the ongoing situation on Manus and Nauru". "It wasn't so much about attacking him or attacking Labor, but making sure that we are taking an active role in the debate and demonstrating our concern for people who are in detention," the source said. It was a "constructive" meeting and "I think he appreciated us coming to him," they said. A spokesman for Mr Neumann said: "The shadow minister regularly meets with colleagues to discuss issues related to his portfolio and he had a productive meeting." All the attendees were approached for comment.

Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt attended the meeting in Shayne Neumann's office. Credit:Lisa Maree Williams Fairfax Media understands there are active discussions within Labor, particularly MPs in the party's Left faction, about changing Labor's asylum seeker policies with a view to making them more compassionate. They are pointing to next year's ALP national conference as an opportunity to push for a substantive shift in policy, although not all in the Left believe that's possible. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Credit:Andrew Meares It is understood MPs are anxious to demonstrate greater concern for people stuck on the islands, and to better articulate the government's failure to resettle refugees after more than four years.

Outspoken Labor senator Lisa Singh, a long-time refugee advocate, said the government should investigate the death of Mr Shamshiripour. Sam Dastyari spoke passionately about refugees at a pub function on Wednesday night in Canberra. "That's the usual procedure when you have the duty of care," she said. "This is a shameful chapter in our history." Meanwhile on Wednesday night, Labor senator Sam Dastyari railed against the lengthy detention of refugees during a free-wheeling "politics in the pub" session at the Civic Pub in Canberra. Hamed Shamshiripour died on Manus Island.

While his comments were in line with current Labor policy, he promised Labor would seek a "fundamental shift" in the way refugees who come by boat are processed. "This is what I believe we need to take to the next election and I believe we will take to the next election," Senator Dastyari said. "To start off, you open up the camps. You bring transparency, you actually process these people, and you start actually finding a place for these people to go. I think that is a huge change from what we're doing at the moment." Senator Dastyari, of the NSW Right, said the refugee debate in Australia had become "messed up" and was based on the idea that "if we deny one group of people's rights enough, that somehow this actually saves lives, this is right thing to do and it's the moral thing to do". "Piss off. No," he said. "None of this is okay and it's not good enough for us as a society."

Senator Dastyari lamented the death of Mr Shamshiripour in the "mosquito-infested swamp that is Manus [Island]", telling the supportive pub crowd: "You can't look at that and not ask yourself, how is that OK?" On Thursday, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton would not take responsibility for the death, but said: "The loss of one life is one too many, and I'm determined to get people off Manus, [and] to do it in such a way that we don't restart boats." Mr Dutton said there would be a coronial inquest into the death. "I don't want people on Manus Island," he said. "I didn't put people on Manus Island. My responsibility was to clean up the mess that was left to us by Labor. The important thing is that we aren't adding to the numbers on Manus Island." During Wednesday night's book launch with The Australia Institute, Senator Dastyari also opened up about a "flippant" phone call he had in 2013 with then prime minister Kevin Rudd when the former Labor government announced the so-called Papua New Guinea solution.

"Kevin calls me. It was one of those flippant conversations," Senator Dastyari recounted. "He goes to me, 'We've got a plan, we're going to fix the refugee problem'. "Fix has a very distinct meaning in machine politics. Fix means we're going to make the problem go away. "I was probably on the phone to Kevin for three or four minutes. You kind of hang up and walk away. "You realise a year later: holy f---. We had a conversation which was prior to us making a decision [about] what is going to be the defining moment in so many people's lives. "And we just kind of flippantly dealt with it on the phone as a kind of passing thing."