The government faces another possible Senate defeat with Labor, the Greens, the Palmer United party and other crossbench senators insisting that 30,000 asylum seekers living in limbo in Australia receive the possibility of a permanent visa.



The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, sought to sway senators as debate on the new bill began, announcing he had agreed to increase the humanitarian intake from 13,750 to 18,750 in two years’ time, and to 20,000 in the following year. He also said he would allow people on temporary protection visas to leave the country for compassionate reasons, for example to visit a dying relative, if they did not travel to the country where they claimed they had been persecuted.

He said asylum seekers on bridging visas would be able to work, but only if the bill passed.

Morrison said it was crucial the Senate dealt with the bill before Christmas and that the government had been true to its principles, “but also pragmatic”.

The concessions won the backing of independent senator Nick Xenophon, who told Guardian Australia he was facing a “Hobson’s choice”, but felt it was “important to try to make a bad situation a bit better”.

“These are appreciable wins,” he said. “If we do nothing, I believe ... asylum seekers will be worse off, as imperfect as this bill is.”

With Labor and the Greens opposing the bill, three more votes against would be enough to defeat it – on Wednesday morning four senators said they were opposed. As Senate debate began on the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment (Resolving the Asylum Legacy Caseload) Bill 2014, the two PUP senators wrote to Morrison, saying they could not agree to the bill as it stands and telling him to bring it back next year.

And a spokesman for independent senator John Madigan said he would “vote against the bill at all opportunities” because he opposes temporary protection visas. The newly independent Jacqui Lambie continued to say she would vote against all government legislation until it agreed to improve its offer for defence force pay.

The bill reintroduces temporary protection visas (TPVs), and promises future regulations to implement the deal between Morrison and Clive Palmer to introduce a “safe haven” visa to give refugees who work in regional areas a “pathway” to permanent residency.

The legislation goes far beyond what had been agreed with PUP in restricting refugee rights and does not provide details or a clear pathway for safe haven visa holders to achieve permanent residency.

As reported by Guardian Australia last week Labor, the Greens, PUP and other crossbenchers are insisting the safe haven visa does provide such a pathway.

Announcing his new concessions Morrison repeated that safe haven visa holders would be able to apply for visas such as 457s or employer-sponsored skilled visas, but not for permanent protection visas as refugees.

“It has never been our policy to provide a permanent protection visa for people who come illegally by boat,” he said.

Senators believe very few safe haven visa holders would qualify for the types of visas Morrison said they could apply for.

As the debate began, Labor senator Claire Moore said Labor would press to “turn the imagined pathway to permanence...into a real one, a temporary visa valid for five years”.

“If visa holders do work or study in regional areas for at least 3 ½ years they will have a right to a permanent visa,” she said.

Labor would also move for work rights to be extended to asylum seekers on bridging visas and to strike out TPVs.

Morrison has insisted this won’t happen. “There’s no way I will lift the bar to give someone a permanent visa … We gave an absolute commitment on that and I’m not going to send a message … that permanent visas are on offer in Australia again for people who have arrived illegally by boat,” he said last week.

Morrison argues it is the fault of Labor and the Greens that the 30,000 asylum seekers who arrived before the new “Pacific solution” are languishing, without work rights, because of the political deadlock in the Senate over the terms under which they might stay.

He says the “bloody-minded’’ ideological refusal of the opposition parties to consider the Coalition’s policy to reintroduce TPVs has left asylum seekers as “collateral damage”.

The Greens accuse him of “bullying” the crossbench and using the plight of asylum seekers as a form of “blackmail”.

As revealed by Guardian Australia, Palmer had immediate concerns about the bill when its detail was revealed and sent a “please explain” letter to Morrison when a parliamentary human rights committee including five members of the Coalition found the bill was incompatible with human rights.

As well as reintroducing TPVs and the new safe haven visas, the legislation redefines who is eligible for refugee status and seeks to prevent future high court challenges against boat turnbacks, against claims by asylum-seeker children born in Australia or against claims of human rights breaches under the UN refugee convention.

It also “fast-tracks” refugee processing, removes rights of appeal and allows authorities to take detained vessels or persons anywhere in the world regardless of international or domestic law.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: “Who does this minister think he is to delete the refugee convention from our law books, that it will be he who interprets our international obligations … he wants unfettered, unchecked power to decide who a refugee is, with no rights of appeal.”