Doctors are urging Labor to hold firm in support of changes to how critically ill asylum seekers are brought to Australia for medical treatment.
Dozens of doctors have descended on Parliament House in Canberra as Labor caucus members meet to finalise their position ahead of a vote on the reforms.
Paul Bauert from the Australian Medical Association is concerned the issue is being drowned out by politics.
“People’s lives are at stake – the politicking must stop,” he told reporters on Monday.
Labor is under pressure to drop its support for changes to medical evacuations, which would make treating doctors rather than politicians the final arbiters.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the “unnecessary and counterproductive” changes would undermine offshore processing and restart the people smuggling trade.
“There’s no sense in being big-hearted – in getting people out of detention, including children on Nauru – only to find that a boat turns up the next day to refill the places with new arrivals,” he told media.
“And that’s what Labor can’t answer.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten received a security briefing on the proposed changes on Monday morning before meetings with the shadow cabinet and Labor caucus.
Security agencies have warned the changes could see up to 1000 asylum seekers brought to Australia within weeks.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese is confident the legislation will still allow immigration ministers to exercise discretion over medical transfers on national security grounds.
But Mr Albanese has indicated Labor is willing to “tweak” the laws to ensure this power is clear.
“So if we need to tweak the legislation then, by all means, we should be able to do that in order to get an outcome,” he told radio.
Dr Bauert insisted the bill already contained appropriate safeguards.
“I think any tweaking is going to put us into a situation where we are worse off,” he said.
Senior federal minister Mathias Cormann insists there will be absolutely no compromise with Labor.
“There is no way to improve this bad bill,” Senator Cormann told reporters.
“This is a bill that would weaken our border protection policies, it is a bill that would put people smugglers back into business.
“We are not at all interested in weakening the current border protection policies.”
Under the proposed changes, the final decision on medical transfers of
asylum seekers in offshore detention would shift from politicians and public servants to two treating doctors.
A minister would be required to review cases within 24 hours and, if they reject an evacuation, an independent health panel would scrutinise their decision.
A vote is expected on the changes in the lower house as early as this week, with the minority coalition government facing the prospect of a loss if both Labor and enough crossbenchers support them.
