Australia’s offshore detention policy is shaping up as a key election issue, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delivered a rebuke to crossbenchers calling for the removal of children from Nauru, declaring:
“you don't negotiate your borders.
You don't do that. You don't get to negotiate with people smugglers. You have to have very clear and unambiguous policies, and this is the problem that often happens in this place, they don't understand that these issues are dealt with in very absolute terms."
Kerryn Phelps, the independent candidate and likely winner of the Wentworth by-election, has continued her calls for the Coalition to remove the remaining children and their families off Nauru.
She now forms part of a significant bloc with crossbench MPs calling on the government to end its detention policies there.
