Republic of Nauru

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash. This would have amended a previous motion(See the division on that motion here. ) with the following:

At the end of the motion, add “and in addition to the opening of offshore processing on Nauru, calls on the Government to implement the full suite of the Coalition’s successful border protection policies and:

_(a) restore temporary protection visas as the only visa option available to be granted to offshore entry persons found to be refugees;_

_(b) issue new instructions to Northern Command to commence to turn back boats seeking to illegally enter Australia where it is safe to do so;_(FactCheck on ABC discussed whether it is illegal to turn back boats in international waters to Indonesia here. )

(c) use existing law to remove the benefit of the doubt on a person’s identity where there is a reasonable belief that a person has deliberately discarded their documentation; and

_(d) restore the Bali Process to once again focus on deterrence and border security”._

There was one rebel voter in this division. Labor Senator Lin Thorp crossed the floor to vote with the Coalition.(Read more about crossing the floor here.) However, Senator Thorp subsequently sought leave to make a personal statement that "I apologise that I rushed in and inadvertently sat on the wrong side of the chamber during the division". This suggests that the Senator did not intend to cross the floor.

References