Coalition wants to repeal medical evacuations bill it was forced to accept during minority parliament

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Legislation to repeal the medevac transfer process cannot pass the parliament before late October because it will go to a Senate inquiry, a process giving supporters of the current arrangements a public platform to argue for their retention.

The repeal legislation, introduced to the House of Representatives on Thursday, will now proceed to an inquiry by the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Legislative Committee, with a report date of 18 October.

Guardian Australia understands the Morrison government did not argue against either the inquiry or the reporting date.

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The Coalition has declared it wants to repeal the medical transfers regime it was forced to accept during the period of minority parliament, but it has to tread carefully because of dynamics in the Senate.

The Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff earlier this week put the Morrison government on notice that repealing the medical evacuations bill would “sully the relationship” between himself and the Coalition.

The Morrison government will on Thursday achieve the passage of its income tax cuts package with the support of the Centre Alliance bloc of two senators. Post election, the government needs support from four crossbenchers to pass any legislation that Labor and the Greens oppose.

The medevac legislation sets out conditions by which sick refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island can be transferred to Australia for medical treatment. In the event of medical advice from two or more treating doctors that a person needs to be evacuated, the home affairs minister has grounds for refusal.

Centre Alliance has been a strong supporter of the procedures that enhance the status of clinicians in determining whether medical transfers occur. Labor has also declined to support scrapping medevac.

If the government proceeds with the repeal, it will need the vote of the Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, who has thus far refused to articulate her position on the issue. Lambie told the ABC on Thursday she sill needed a few more weeks to determine her view.

The government will have support from the One Nation bloc of two and independent Cory Bernardi to achieve repeal of medevac, but requires one more vote to get it through the Senate.

The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, told parliament on Thursday as he introduced the repeal legislation that “as a nation it is imperative we are able to determine who enters Australia and whether they should remain in our borders permanently”.

But earlier in the week Griff was adamant the current procedures were working. “It’s very much a brave move for the government to repeal a process that is working well and only applies to existing asylum seekers who require critical medical treatment that is not available on Nauru,” he said.

“It hasn’t opened the asylum seeker floodgates. It’s not a pathway to settlement, as transfers are temporary.”

Griff said the procedures were managed by a government-appointed medical panel and the minister had grounds to refuse a medical transfer. “It really is time for the government to stop the scaremongering and show they have a humanitarian side and allow a life-saving process to continue,” he said.