Prime Minister Scott Morrison is unsure what impact new Nauruan laws limiting medical evacuations for asylum seekers will have on Australia's transfers regime.
The Nauruan government has reportedly enacted new laws limiting medical evacuations and banning remote assessments after legislation passed making it easier for asylum seekers to be taken from offshore processing.
"It's not quite clear what they've done and how that will play out," Mr Morrison told 3AW on Tuesday.
"What's happened in Nauru is a good example of what happens, and how Labor didn't think through what playing around with border protection laws will do."
Labor leader Bill Shorten also had not seen the new Nauruan laws but respected the country's right to make them.
"If they're passing laws which they feel are necessary, that's up to them - they are a sovereign government," he told reporters in Canberra.
Mr Morrison reiterated government claims that 265 asylum seekers rejected by the United States could come to Australia under the new regime.
"In a lot of these cases they won't have serious criminal convictions but they may well be facing charges for such convictions and not have been sentenced," the prime minister said.
"What Labor did to the laws means there is no ability for us to stop those transfers."
Under the changes, which were delivered in a historic parliamentary defeat for the government, two doctors will be able to recommend asylum seekers currently on Manus Island and Nauru for medical transfer.
The home affairs minister will have 72 hours to make a decision on whether to agree to a medical transfer.
If the minister rejects the medical reasons, the decision may be reviewed by a medical panel, which can recommend it goes ahead.
Those who are transferred to Australia would be kept in immigration detention.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the people barred by the US could "most certainly" come to Australia under the laws passed last week.
Despite the new system only applying to people already in offshore processing centres, Mr Dutton is adamant the move could restart boat arrivals.
"Do you think in a village in Indonesia that people are going to understand the nuance?" he told Sky News on Tuesday.
