PM signals action on asylum seeker children as Liberal MPs urge help

The federal government is considering a new position on bringing asylum seeker children to Australia for medical treatment as rebel Liberal MPs call for urgent action to remove sick children from detention centres.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would consider “the interests of the child” in every case and was acting on pleas from Liberal colleagues including backbenchers Russell Broadbent and Craig Laundy.

“I’ve been meeting with those colleagues, as have the relevant ministers, and we have been acting on those issues,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday morning.

“We haven’t been doing it by making public statements every day but we will always consider each and every case on its merits and in the interests of the child, and we will continue to do that.”

Fairfax Media has confirmed that Mr Broadbent and Mr Laundy met Mr Morrison on September 20 to urge the Prime Minister to bring the children from Nauru to Australia for medical treatment.

Liberal MP Julia Banks and other MPs are supporting Mr Broadbent and Mr Laundy.

“This is a humanitarian decision that the Australian government needs to make with a sense of urgency for the children,” Ms Banks told Fairfax Media.

The government has been canvassing its options on the matter since then but is yet to announce a new approach, given the hard-line rhetoric from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton against allowing any asylum seeker who comes by boat to be settled in Australia.

The Liberal MPs have been arguing for medical treatment for the asylum seeker children in Australia so they can be settled in third countries.

Mr Morrison repeated his warning that the government could not accept an offer from New Zealand to accept asylum seeker families unless Labor supported a bill that would close a border security gap between the two countries.

“There is a bill still sitting in the Senate from 2016 that would close the back door from New Zealand to Australia which is opposed by the Labor Party and the Greens and crossbench senators, and which is preventing that protection being putin place.

“And I would urge them to reconsider their position on that.”

Some Liberal MPs are voicing their frustration after waiting for a resolution of the problem in the wake of meetings with the Australian Medical Association, which is calling for urgent action to guarantee the health and wellbeing of asylum seeker children and their families on Nauru.

Almost 6000 Australian doctors have signed an open letter that was delivered to Mr Morrison on Monday.

Doctors with direct knowledge of the health of the children on Nauru have also visited Canberra to tell MPs of the need for medical treatment in Australia, in conversations that have helped build pressure for a change in policy.

Labor employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said a Labor government would bring people to Australia if they need medical care.

“It will be a priority of a Labor government if elected to ensure that people don’t languish, as they have,” he told Sky News.

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