Liberal MP Julia Banks has urged the government to remove children and their families from Nauru, saying the situation has reached a crisis point.
Ms Banks said concerns about stopping the boats had been overridden by the plight of sick children and Australia's humanitarian obligation to get them off Nauru.
"What was a defensible argument in the past is weakened," she told parliament on Thursday.
The first-term MP announced she would not recontest her marginal seat for the Liberals after the bruising leadership spill, citing bullying and harassment from colleagues.
"In the past few months, the political games and distractions of both parties have disgracefully played out in this place and in the meantime the situation in Nauru with sick children has reached a crisis point," she said.
Ms Banks said asylum seeker boats would not return as a result of a one-off act of grace, claiming the refugees sent to the United States were proof a resurgence in vessels would not be caused by resettlement.
By adding the children's families to her demands, Ms Banks has stepped up her push after joining fellow Liberal MPs Russell Broadbent and Craig Laundy in calling for children to be taken off Nauru.
Her comments came after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told parliament asylum seekers resettled in the US have been complaining back to friends in Nauru about the conditions in their new country.
"We are seeing ... reports of people that have gone from Nauru to the United States saying it is harder than they thought because they need to find work in the United States," he said.
"They are saying to people on Nauru now you would be better to go to New Zealand or Australia because they have a better welfare system."
Leading Australian paediatrician, Professor David Isaacs, is worried a child could die on Nauru if the government does not intervene.
"The situation now amounts to nothing short of a medical emergency," Prof Isaacs said.
"As a paediatrician, it is my view that if our government does not act now, there is a serious risk of death."
About 50 children and 550 adults remain as refugees on the island.
They are not detained and are free to move about the 21-square-kilometre island and have 20-year visas, the government says.
Ms Banks argues they are psychologically detained.
"Sure, they're not behind bars and they can walk around freely, but the will - especially the will of a parent with a sick child wanting help - is a detention of their mind and their spirit," she said.
Mr Dutton said Labor was in a "blind panic" about detainees on Nauru, and a push to send them to New Zealand wouldn't work due to security reasons.
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