PROVISION OF HEALTHCARE SERVICES FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS

Scott Morrison must immediately take action to ensure asylum seekers and refugees, including children, in the Australian-funded regional processing centre on Nauru are receiving adequate healthcare and mental healthcare services.

 

Labor is concerned Médecins Sans Frontières are no longer able to provide psychological and psychiatric services to asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru as they have done so since late-2017.

 

The Australian Government must work with their Nauruan counterparts to ensure vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees have access to the services they require – including providing appropriate health, security, and welfare services – and that there will be no diminution of these services as a result of MSF’s departure.

 

Labor strongly believes that medical transfers to alternative treatment locations for refugees and children in Australian-funded offshore regional processing centres should be made available when a treatment is not available on island and where treatment is recommended by appropriate medical practitioners.

 

If a medical practitioner recommends the medical transfer of a vulnerable individual requiring treatment, it should not require a legal challenge to take place to compel the Government to meet its obligations – an occurrence that has taken place far too many times under the current Abbott-Morrison-Turnbull Government.

 

Australia has a moral responsibility to people currently in Australian-funded offshore regional processing centres; Scott Morrison, Peter Dutton, and the new Immigration Minister David Coleman cannot absolve themselves of this responsibility.

 

Ongoing concerns about the provision of healthcare is one of the many reasons why Scott Morrison must accept New Zealand's generous offer to resettle eligible refugees – including children – from Nauru and Manus Island as quickly as possible.

 

Nauru and Manus Island were set up as temporary regional processing centres but have become places of indefinite detention because of the failure of successive Liberal Governments to negotiate other third country resettlement options.

 

If elected, a Shorten Labor Government will accept New Zealand’s offer and negotiate other third country resettlement options as a matter of utmost priority to end genuine refugees languishing in indefinite detention.

 

The Morrison Government cannot bury its head in the sand when it comes to its ongoing failures to manage Australian-funded regional processing centres or negotiate other third country resettlement options.