Chief minister Andrew Barr to make statement on Monday after Daniel Andrews tells Malcolm Turnbull asylum seekers should be allowed to stay

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A second Australian jurisdiction is set to offer to resettle a group of asylum seekers, including 37 babies, awaiting removal to Nauru, as Malcolm Turnbull resists growing calls by state premiers, doctors, church leaders and activists to allow the 267 to stay.

The chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Andrew Barr, has said he will make a statement on Monday in line with Victoria’s offer “to accept full responsibility for all of these children and their families”.

Andrew Barr (@ABarrMLA) @rac_canberra yes and yes

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, released a letter on Saturday asking Turnbull to allow the 267 asylum seekers, most of whom were held on Nauru and brought to Australia for medical treatment, to settle in Victoria, adding the offer meant “there is no justification for their removal”.



“I want these children and their families to call Victoria home,” he said.

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The offer was backed by the New South Wales premier, Mike Baird, who said Andrews was “a good man” and that NSW was “prepared to help” resettle the group if asked by the federal government.

“I recognise the humanitarian impulse behind [Andrews’] letter to the prime minister,” Baird said.

“The same impulse has driven us to work cooperatively with the commonwealth to resettle an additional intake of refugees in NSW following the recent turmoil in Syria, which is where our focus remains.

“If the PM has any additional requests for NSW, we are prepared to help.”

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, also lent her support on Sunday, saying her state “stands willing and able to help those families that are currently here”.

She called on the federal government to show compassion and said she would call the prime minister to appeal for a more humane policy. “It’s about time we put politics to one side,” she said.

Will Hodgman, the premier of Tasmania, reiterated a September call for more refugees to be settled in his state, though their numbers are unlikely to include anyone currently in detention on Nauru.

Will Hodgman MP (@WillHodgman) We will welcome an additional intake of refugees to Tasmania, and we'll continue to push for that to happen as soon as possible

But despite the state and territory leaders’ appeals and protests across the country, Turnbull on Sunday refused to say whether he would make exceptions for the group, which includes a five-year-old boy allegedly raped on the Pacific island.



“I will choose my words carefully because everything I say is being looked at in the finest, most detailed way possible by the people smugglers,” the prime minister said.



“I want to say this: people who seek to come to Australia with people smugglers will not succeed.”



Appeals to stay would be assessed with compassion and on a case-by-case basis, he said.

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A high court decision on Wednesday reaffirmed the legality of Australia’s offshore detention regime and cleared the way for the 276 asylum seekers to be returned to Nauru at 72 hours’ notice.

Several of the women and children have allegedly been sexually assaulted and raped on the island, while others have complex continuing health complaints.

The leaders of 10 Anglican and Uniting churches have offered to provide sanctuary to members of the group, even if it meant clergy were charged with obstruction offences.

On Sunday, Andrews said that he had spoken with Turnbull about housing refugee families in Victoria but their positions were some way apart.

“They’re already here and they ought to be allowed to stay. I made that position very clear to the prime minister,” he told reporters on Sunday. “I hope to continue to talk with him.”

Mr Andrews said he was encouraged that NSW Premier Mike Baird had made “some supportive comments”.

“You’ve got the two biggest states in the nation prepared to extend a hand of friendship, do the right thing,” he said. “And I would urge the prime minister and his colleagues in Canberra to join us.”

More than 60 Australian writers – including the Nobel laureate JM Coetzee and Booker prize winners Thomas Keneally and Peter Carey – have also written to the prime minister, condemning the government’s offshore detention policies as “brutal” and “shameful”.