The federal government's hardline plan to banish boat people to Papua New Guinea is facing its first legal challenge.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Monday the government had received an application filed in the Federal Court on behalf of a would-be refugee who has been transferred to PNG.
But he says the government had received advice that the application could not commence in the Federal Court, and that its lawyers would be "objecting to the competency of the application".
The Rudd government was "very confident" in the legal basis for its PNG arrangement, he insisted.
"It will vigorously defend any challenge to the regional processing arrangements with Papua New Guinea," he said in a statement.
Mr Dreyfus added there would be no interruption to transfers to PNG's Manus Island, and that the resettlement policy would continue to be fully implemented while the matter proceeds.
Meanwhile, PNG's Supreme Court is also expected to hear a constitutional challenge to the policy on Tuesday, with lawyers likely to push for access to detainees housed on Manus Island.
