Independent tells ABC she believes the government will remove children from Nauru without the need for a no-confidence motion

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Kerryn Phelps has said she believes the “writing is on the wall” for Australia’s offshore detention policies as prominent members of the crossbench urge the major parties to strike a deal to get children off Nauru.

The independent, who is now all but certain to claim the Sydney seat of Wentworth from the Liberals, said on Monday night the massive swing towards her and against the government showed “the people have spoken” on refugee policy.

“I think the most important thing is that we give now the government an opportunity to respond to what the people have said,” she told the ABC’s Q&A program. “The people have spoken on this issue, I believe, in this byelection.”

Asked if she would support a no-confidence motion against the government on the issue, Phelps declined to answer directly, saying she would “rather work by encouragement”.

Labor says it's prepared to strike deal with Coalition to get children off Nauru Read more

“With an election looming in May of next year, the government will be judged on its response to this,” she said. “I don’t think it will take a motion of no confidence to have them act on this. I think the writing is on the wall.”

Her comments come as the lower house MPs Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie demand a bipartisan solution to the crisis on Nauru.

Before the program aired, Australian border force officials said 11 children had been transferred off Nauru for medical attention amid a mental health crisis on the island. A further 52 minors reportedly remained there, according to the ABC.

Phelps, who campaigned strongly on refugee policy during the byelection, will join Sharkie and McGowan on the crossbench once she is officially declared victorious in the formerly blue-ribbon Liberal seat. Her victory means the Coalition is now short of a majority in the lower house.

As signs pointed to a possible Phelps victory last week, the government said for the first time that it would accept an offer from New Zealand to resettle 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island.

But it said it would only do so if those people were then banned from ever entering Australia again under any circumstances. New Zealand has balked at that proposal, as have Labor and the Greens.

The former Liberal immigration minister Philip Ruddock urged Labor to back the government’s proposal on Monday night.

Phelps did not give a view on that proposal but said the New Zealand resettlement option more generally was a “very good interim measure at least”.

Anthony Albanese, a Labor frontbencher, also declined to be drawn, saying the matter was “not that simple” and that opposition would not give the government a “blank cheque” on the issue. “We have said that the government has to sit down with the New Zealand government,” he said.

Nauru deal close as crossbench lists demands – politics live Read more

Asked if a future Labor government would ever detain children in offshore detention again, Albanese also refused to answer the question directly, instead saying that existing policies would “stop the boats”.

“There wouldn’t be any … [boats]. That’s the point,” he said.

Instead, Albanese said Labor would “fund the UNHCR properly” and double the refugee intake, meaning Australia “would be in a position to have much stronger negotiations with our neighbours and other countries in the region as well”.

Earlier in the program, Phelps reiterated her belief that governments should “serve their full terms”.

Despite strongly criticising the government for lacking a policy on climate change, the former Australian Medical Association president said it would not be her “intention to trigger anything like a general election sooner”.

“But I would like to trigger some action by the government to put together an actual action plan,” she said.

A federal election is due by May 2019.