The federal Labor caucus has unanimously voted to oppose the government’s planned lifetime ban on refugees in offshore detention from entering Australia.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, introduced the travel ban bill to parliament on Tuesday but its fate hangs in the balance as the Nick Xenophon Team and other crossbench senators determine their positions.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, had labelled aspects of the plan “ridiculous” because it would prevent a refugee resettled in a third country from coming to Australia as a tourist or on a business trip.

The rejection of the plan marks the first major break in bipartisan consensus on refugee policy since Labor adopted offshore detention and boat turnbacks at the 2015 national conference.

A motion to oppose the refugee travel ban was moved in caucus on Tuesday by Labor’s immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, and seconded by the schools spokesman, Andrew Giles. They passed unanimously, meaning Labor will oppose the ban outright rather than seek to amend it.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Shorten said Labor was committed to preventing people smugglers getting back into business but the proposal was “a solution looking for a problem”.

“We are on a unity ticket with the government to stop the people smugglers, but we are not on a unity ticket to stop the tourists.”

Shorten said it was a “desperate measure by a floundering government … aping the policies of One Nation”.

The ban will apply to any adult who has been sent to detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island since 19 July 2013. The ban will not apply to children.



It means adults who tried to enter Australia by boat since that date, but who subsequently chose to return home, will never be allowed to get a visa to Australia – even as a tourist or a spouse.

It was on 19 July 2013 that the former prime minister Kevin Rudd said: “As of today, asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia.”

Dutton has talked up the prospect that a third-party resettlement deal could follow the ban.

But Labor has noted that New Zealand has said it will not create second-class citizens and argued that means the travel ban will make a resettlement deal harder.

Shorten said he had asked Malcolm Turnbull what discussions were occurring with third-party nations but the prime minister had refused to say.

Today's visa legislation is a matter of national security. A test for @billshortenmp. Does he stand for strong borders? — Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) November 7, 2016

On Tuesday Dutton said on Twitter the ban was “a matter of national security” and it was a test of whether Shorten stood for “strong borders”.

At a doorstop interview, the immigration minister said he was “confident” it would pass “because it’s sensible”.

The Nick Xenophon Team has not determined its position and could split on the ban, because Xenophon has told Guardian Australia it is a “conscience issue” for the party. Given Labor and the Greens oppose it, they are just three votes short of blocking the measure.

Dutton said the travel ban was needed to “reinforce the government’s longstanding policy that people who travel here by boat will never be resettled in Australia”. He claimed advocates told refugees if they rejected resettlement or to return to their country of origin they would eventually come to Australia.

Asked if Labor could back the policy with amendments, Shorten noted that Dutton had already ruled out any changes.

The government has claimed that ministerial discretion will address Labor’s concerns that even if a refugee became a Nobel prize winner he or she could not visit Australia.

Shorten labelled the use of discretions “lazy law-making” that didn’t fix the ban, which he has also criticised for refusing refugees the ability to visit the Opera House or Great Barrier Reef.

The Greens immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, said: “Labor’s crawl towards a more compassionate approach to refugees does not change their continued support for cruel and ineffective policies.”

“It’s time for Labor to add some vertebrae to their newly formed spine and reject offshore detention and boat turnbacks.”