Colin Barnett says ‘as long as they don’t present a security or safety risk’ Western Australia would accommodate refugee families

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Western Australian premier, Colin Barnett, has said holding children in detention is “unacceptable” and he would welcome refugee families coming to Australia.

Barnett’s comments increase the pressure to bring families and children to Australia from Nauru, joining calls from Catholic nuns, charities, refugee and human rights groups.

But immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has reiterated that no people will be brought from Nauru or Manus Island detention centres to Australia.

Revealed: Peter Dutton's extensive briefings about risks and harm to children on Nauru Read more

When asked on ABC’s Lateline on Wednesday whether women and children on Nauru should come to WA Barnett said: “The answer is, particularly for families, as long as they don’t present a security or safety risk, I do welcome them being in Australia.”

“One thing I find unacceptable is children in detention,” he said.

Barnett said he “wouldn’t call on the federal government” to bring refugees held in offshore detention to Australia.

“But if they decide to do that we’d accommodate a number of them in WA and we’d certainly support them as a state government,” he said.

The call comes after the publication by Guardian Australia of more than 2,000 leaked incident reports including details of systemic physical and sexual abuses and widespread self-harm and suicide attempts in the detention centre on the Pacific island.

On Wednesday the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed that the Manus Island detention centre will be closed, but offered no detail on the future of the 854 men held there.



The Mary Mackillop sisters, from Catholic religious orders, have called for asylum seekers to be brought to Australia.

“The men on Manus must be granted this amnesty and brought to Australia, not to some other temporary or unsafe context,” said congregational leader of the Sisters of St Joseph, Monica Cavanagh.

“We are making a personal appeal to [Malcolm] Turnbull and [Bill] Shorten: please put human dignity above politics by agreeing to work together.”

The Refugee Council of Australia acting chief executive, Tim O’Connor, said the announced closure was welcome but “raises great concerns about the welfare of the almost 1,000 men Australia has kept there”.

O’Connor called for a “safe, long-term option” for people detained on Manus. He said: “Going home is not an option for these men, most of whom have already been recognised as refugees”.

O’Connor said the proposed resettlement of these people on Papua New Guinea is “wholly inadequate”, due to physical violence and threats against them.

The Refugee Action Coalition called for people on Manus to be released, and said the Australian and PNG governments may be trying to head off a court case seeking the unconditional release of all detainees and their return to Australia.

The Save the Children chief executive, Paul Ronalds, said: “The Turnbull government must now find a humane and sustainable resettlement pathway for these men, be it in Australia or a safe, developed and appropriate third country that affords them the rights.”

Human Rights Watch Australia director, Elaine Pearson, echoed that call and said the men could not be “simply shunted down the road to a transit centre or moved to Nauru or Cambodia”.

Oxfam Australia chief executive, Helen Szoke, called for the Manus and Nauru detention facilities to be shut, for detainees’ claims to be quickly assessed, and refugees to be permanently settled in Australia if their claims were successful.

Speaking on the ABC’s AM program on Thursday, Dutton confirmed that refugees and asylum seekers in offshore detention “will never be settled in Australia”. He also accused Save the Children of leaking documents to undermine offshore detention, a claim the group has denied.

Dutton said men in the Manus Island detention facility could return to their country of origin or settle permanently on Manus.

He conceded fewer than 20 people had agreed to resettle on Manus, but pointed to hundreds that had returned to their country of origin.

“People are making a decision on Nauru and on Manus to say that they don’t want to return and we can’t accept that situation.”

Barnett said the ruling of the Papua New Guinea supreme court in April that Manus was unconstitutional had complicated the legal status of the detention centre.

“I’m sure Australia can manage the refugee situation,” he said. “This government is far more in control than the previous government [of the issue].”

On Thursday morning on ABC News Breakfast, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said the federal government would not change its mind on bringing families from Nauru to Australia.

“We’ve been able to close 17 detention centres as a result of our successful and effective border protection policies, which of course, very importantly included offshore processing,” he said.

He said offshore detention remained necessary to stop asylum seekers making journeys to Australia by boat.

On Tuesday a group of legal academics and migration experts, including law professor Frank Brennan, argued the policy of turnbacks makes punitive detention unnecessary to deter dangerous boat journeys.

On Wednesday, Greens immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young said the offshore detention policy is in “free-fall” with the announcement Manus will close and shocking revelations from Nauru.

“These men have been put through enough. They were dumped on the island, attacked, ignored and then neglected for over three years,” she said.

“The Turnbull government must now ensure that these people are given a chance to rebuild their lives in safety in Australia.”

Labor’s shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, said the government must secure proper third-country settlement options for refugees following the decision to close the Manus Island centre.