Jacqui Lambie

Senator Jacqui Lambie has revealed she voted to repeal Australia's medevac laws after negotiating a deal with the government on offshore detention.

Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart. Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.

Senator Lambie told Today she was told to keep quiet over a secret deal made with the Prime Minister in 201...

"I believe everything else is out in the open. "I don't believe it was very well communicated. "I just didn't like the way it was handled.

New Zealand will accept 450 refugees from Australia under a three-year deal, which independent senator Jacqui Lambie says was part of a promise Scott ...

But in the end I just knew if I was one of them and knew what was at stake, I’d want Lambie to hold the line,” she tweeted. Senator Lambie said she had negotiated with Mr Morrison to accept the offer to resettle refugees in offshore detention as part of her agreement in December 2019 to reverse the “medevac” legislation, which was originally passed without the government’s support. Anyone who breaches our borders will either be sent back or they will be sent to Nauru,” she told reporters. It was the fact that the deal would be torn up if I said anything. In the 2020-21 financial year, it accepted almost 6000 asylum seekers. Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here. “I was told that talking about the deal would kill the deal. People who come to Australia illegally by boat will never be allowed to settle here. In recent years, its intake has been well below this level – last year, it only accepted 463 refugees. He said there are strong rules around who can reveal the content of national security briefings. NZ’s offer had been repeatedly rebuffed by the Australian government since it was first made in 2013. “It wasn’t the prison threat keeping me quiet.

Independent senator says deal with New Zealand to resettle 450 people could have caused some to turn down US program.

Paul Power, chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, dismissed references to the US deal as a “distraction”. The shadow minister assisting for immigration, Andrew Giles, told Guardian Australia the government’s claim of prioritising the US deal “doesn’t hold water”. Birmingham said the New Zealand deal was necessary to deal with a “small legacy caseload of individuals” and would not result in a pull factor for refugee boats, which he said had been “prevented” by the Coalition’s other policies such as turnbacks. In 2016 the then Turnbull government struck a deal with the US to take up to 1,200 refugees and asylum seekers from Australia’s offshore detention. “And because not everybody who was eligible for resettlement with the United States program would definitely qualify for the New Zealand program, I couldn’t speak out, in case asylum seekers who had a spot in the US deal would turn it down in the hope of taking the New Zealand option. Australia waited nine years to accept the New Zealand refugee deal out of fear asylum seekers would snub the option of the US, independent senator Jacqui Lambie and the Morrison government have claimed.

The independent senator accuses the Prime Minister of being "intimidating" and "bullish" during negotiations in 2019 to resettle hundreds of refugees in New ...

For years I held up my end of the agreement. I did it because I thought, on balance, that medevac gave me leverage to get people out of offshore detention, to let them move on with their lives after years in limbo. "In the end I decided to support it.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says she felt intimidated by Scott Morrison when they were negotiating a secret deal in 2019 to send asylum seekers to New ...

“The United States resettlement agreement was still going when I negotiated with the Morrison government. “I was in the room that day and I can tell you now what was said was intimidating. Anyone who breaches our borders will either be sent back or they will be sent to Nauru,” she told reporters. I did it because I thought, on balance, that medevac gave me leverage to get people out of offshore detention. Senator Lambie revealed she had negotiated with Mr Morrison to accept NZ’s offer as part of her agreement in December 2019 to reverse the so-called “medevac” legislation, which was originally passed without the government’s support. “In the end, I decided to support it.