Peter Dutton has brushed off an attack by a Greens MP that labelled him “a terrorist”, saying “it says more about Mr Adam Bandt and the Greens than it does about me”.

Bandt, a federal Greens MP, told a Melbourne rally of asylum seeker supporters on Saturday that the immigration minister was inflicting terror for political gain.

“What is happening between Canberra and Manus has ceased to be government and has become terror,” Bandt said. “If the definition of terror is to use violence and threaten people’s lives for political purposes, then Peter Dutton is a terrorist.”

Bandt said the immigration minister must be held to account for the standoff on Manus Island, where 600 asylum seekers and refugees are refusing to leave the former detention centre. Dutton, however, accused the Greens of stoking tensions on the island.

“I think that says more about Mr Adam Bandt and the Greens than it does about me,” he said of Bandt’s comments. “The Australian government has stopped deaths at sea. We’ve got every child out of detention. Adam Bandt, when he was in government with Julia Gillard, presided over 1,200 people drowning at sea.

“If we allow people who sought to our country by boat to reside in Australia permanently, that will mean that the people smugglers are back in business.”

Dutton has accused the Greens of using the remaining asylum seekers on Manus Island for their own political ends.

“It’s quite distressing to see the Greens ramping up the tempo on Manus Island because I don’t want to see any incident there,” he told ABC radio. “It’s clear the Greens do.”

As the Manus Island standoff enters its sixth day, pressure is mounting on the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to accept a long-standing New Zealand offer to resettle 150 refugees.

The prime minister is having his first sit down with New Zealand’s newly elected leader Jacinda Ardern in Sydney on Sunday.

About 600 asylum seekers without food and water have pleaded for Australians to come to their aid. The men have barricaded themselves in the mothballed detention centre, which closed on Tuesday.

The group is too scared to move to alternative accommodation in the main township out of fear they will be attacked by locals. The last food packs were distributed last Sunday and the group has been digging holes to find water.

The United Nations human rights office has called on Australia to restore food, water and health services to the group on Manus Island.

Ardern has reiterated the NZ offer, first made under John Key’s government to the Gillard government in 2013 and rejected many times since.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the plan had similarities to the US resettlement deal to take 1,250 people.

“[The prime minister] should have the conversation and see if we can make this proposal work,” Shorten said. “If it’s not a viable option, then Turnbull should explain why. Doing nothing is not an option.”

Turnbull has previously stated it would be a marketing opportunity for people smugglers.

On Saturday hundreds of concerned supporters gathered at rallies in Melbourne and Sydney to call for an end to the standoff.

Two men who remain inside the closed detention centre have pleaded with Australians to help them.

“We are forgotten people who have been tortured ... even though we have committed no crime,” one man said in a recorded message played at a rally on Saturday.

The other man said: “Our situation is getting worse and we need your help ... Will Australians stand up and speak for humanity if you think refugees are humans?”

Federal Labor says Turnbull must also ask the US president, Donald Trump, to speed up the resettling of refugees in the US.



“Turnbull is meeting with President Trump in coming weeks, in Asia, he should raise again the possibility of taking some people,” Shorten said. “There is something going on at Manus which is deeply disturbing to the Australian people.”

Dutton said this week that the three alternative locations for the detainees were much better facilities that the closed centre, despite claims at least one of the sites is still under construction.

“The advocates who are here telling them not to move, they are not doing those people any favours,” he told the Nine Network on Thursday.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report