House of Representatives will have to sit on Friday as future of controversial temporary visa proposals hangs in balance

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The House of Representatives will sit again early on Friday to deal with legislation on asylum seekers, after debate on the contentious legislation stretched late into the night in the Senate.

The bill can only pass the Senate with the support of the Motoring Enthusiast party senator Ricky Muir.

He made an emotional speech in the chamber that expressed his deeply conflicted views of the bill.

“I believe that this bill has many bad aspects, however, I am forced into a corner,” Muir said, adding that he wouldn’t wish the situation he finds himself in on “his worst enemy”.

“I fear that doing nothing will not help these [asylum seekers]” he said. “This has been an extremely difficult process for me … There are many aspects of this bill that I am not comfortable with.

“It shouldn’t be like this, but it is. The crossbench shouldn’t be put in this position, but we are.”

The leader of the Palmer United party (PUP), Clive Palmer, announced on Thursday morning that his party would support the resolving the asylum legacy caseload bill. He also said he was “pretty sure” Muir would support the bill.

On Wednesday the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, announced a number of concessions, including the granting of work rights for people on bridging visas and the removal of all children in Christmas Island detention centre before Christmas, in an attempt to get crossbenchers across the line.

A number of senators spoke on the issue.

The Greens leader, Christine Milne, said the legislation was a power grab for Morrison.

“Children are being used as pawns in a political game … to get more power and more legislation through this parliament,” she told the Senate.

Her colleague Scott Ludlam accused Morrison of using the lives of children who have fled persecution in their homelands as poker chips to gain the upper hand.

Some Labor and Greens senators asked why the legislation was being rushed through the Senate, with Sue Lines dubbing it “the worst thing that the Abbott government has ever done”.

Asylum seeker advocates have criticised the bill, which contains a suite of measures, including the reintroduction of temporary protection visas (TPVs), the redefinition of who can be deemed a refugee and placing limitations on legal avenues of appeal.

The resolving the asylum caseload legacy bill is one of the “barnacles” the government wanted to address before the end of the sitting year. Its passage passage would be a much-needed win for the government after the chamber shot down its higher education reforms earlier in the week.

With Labor and the Greens opposing the bill, the government needs six of the eight crossbenchers to pass it.

Newly independent senator Jacqui Lambie has vowed to vote against all government bills until a better pay deal is offered for defence personnel, and fellow independent John Madigan has stated his opposition to the measures contained within the bill. The two PUP senators, Glenn Lazarus and Dio Wang, along with David Leyonhjelm, Bob Day and Nick Xenophon, will vote with the government, leaving Muir with the decisive vote.

Palmer said it was “all very well for people to shake their head” but they were not locked up in detention. “All I care about as a father is that these kids are out of detention,” he said.

Palmer had struck a deal with the government in September to give in-principle support to the bill as long as it made provisions for Safe Haven Enterprise visas (Shevs). Last week Guardian Australia reported that Palmer and a number of crossbenchers had raised concerns with Morrison that the Shev provisions in the bill did not lead to permanent residency, potentially causing Palmer to rethink the deal.

Palmer supported the concessions Morrison announced on Wednesday, including greater detail relating to Shevs.

The bill will allow people on Shevs to apply for other classes of visa – such as student visas and 457s – that could lead to permanent residency.

“You don’t get permanent residency by virtue of the Shev themselves, but the Shev allows you to apply for other visas,” Palmer said.

Permanent protection visas will not be offered under the Shev system.

The Greens argue that few refugees would be eligible for the class of visas available to Shev-holders, as they include visas for business investors and highly-skilled migrants.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said there was no provision for family reunions in the bill, which was one of the requirements Palmer had demanded before giving in-principle support for the bill in September.

“I’m sad to say that Clive Palmer has been tricked by Scott Morrison once again,” Hanson-Young said.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, also said Palmer had been duped.

“Whilst Clive Palmer and Scott Morrison are in the same bed, they’ve got different dreams,” Shorten said.

Palmer acknowledged that there were elements of the bill that he did not endorse, but said something was better than nothing.

“There’s a lot of other provisions in there that we wouldn’t normally support but we think that it’s important for this outcome to get children off Christmas Island, the 27,000 or 30,000 people into work,” Palmer said.

Morrison said the Coalition had negotiated the concessions with the crossbenchers.

“The measures that are being put in the amendments that the government has agreed to exactly reflects and contains all the matters agreed with the PUP earlier this year.”

Xenophon confirmed on Thursday that he would support the bill after Morrison announced his concessions.

“As awful as some people think the legislation is, doing nothing is even more awful,” Xenophon said. “Doing nothing is not an option, doing nothing will actually mean that asylum seekers will be worse off.”