Senate passes refugee medical transfer bill 36 votes to 34
The Senate has passed the medical transfer bill that has consumed Parliament this week, despite 11th hour attempts to persuade independent senator Derryn Hinch to withdraw his support for the bill.
Senator Hinch told the Senate it had been "a very tortured 24 hours" and he was "still perplexed" by some aspects of the bill - which will enable easier medical transfers of sick refugees from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia.
But the Victorian senator - whose vote is crucial to the amended bill passing the Senate - confirmed he was satisfied there were enough safeguards in the bill to ensure Australia's security was not undermined.
"It will only apply to people who are there [currently]," Senator Hinch said. "They will not be coming here and wandering around the streets of Australia."
Senator Hinch backed the bill in the Senate late last year. But because it was amended in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, it returned to the Senate for another vote on Wednesday.
The government has ferociously argued the bill would undermine Operation Sovereign Borders and cause people smugglers to restart their trade.
On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would reopen the Christmas Island detention centre - which closed last year - to cope with what he predicted would be an influx of transfers from Manus Island and Nauru.
During debate on Labor's amendments to the bill, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the Senate that "rapists and paedophiles will still get a free pass into this country".
Senator Hinch had asked for an urgent security briefing on the implications of the bill, which the government facilitated early on Wednesday morning, but Senator Hinch said he was not persuaded to abandon his support for the bill.
"I was quite happy to be accused of flip flopping if I'd gone the other way," he said.
More to come