Transcript
Prompted by the resignation from parliament of the deposed prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, the by-election was won by independent candidate Kerryn Phelps, whose victory, when confirmed, will cancel the government's one seat majority and create a hung parliament.
Dr Phelps told the ABC Australia needed to bring an end to the cruel and unusual punishment of offshore detention.
"First order of business is to get the kids off Nauru with their families to Australia for urgent medical and psychological help. The resettlement option should be explored and New Zealand is an extremely good option and it's definitely something that I'd like to look at.... There are refugee advocates who've spoken to me about that being at least a very good interim position and so it's definitely on the table."
The Australian government says it would accept New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 of the refugees if opposition MPs support its bill to ban all offshore detainees from ever entering Australia.
The opposition Labor and Green parties say they would support a ban that only applied to refugees resettled in New Zealand.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who this week introduced a bill to evacuate children and their families from Nauru, told the ABC he could be willing to compromise.
"It would be with a heavy heart that I would accept that sort of compromise and it would be very strict conditions. For a start they can't trickle to New Zealand over years they all have to go, everyone, kids, and adults in one lot all to New Zealand."
Whether New Zealand would take more than 150 refugees banned from entering Australia was put to the office of Prime Minister of Jacinda Ardern but not answered by deadline.
Advocate Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says with a general election due in Australia by May, the opposition should not compromise.
"We see this condition being an unnecessary concession given that Labor's policy, and Labor is very likely to form the next government, Labor's policy is not to have any kind of concession or travel ban."
Refugee advocate Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says 52 children remain on Nauru, about 30 of whom she believes to be in a critical condition.
Ms Favero says the election of Kerryn Phelps is cause for hope.
"So with another cross bench member we are hoping that that pressure will increase and that we can get those children brought here urgently. As doctors have been telling us it's an absolute miracle that a child has not died already and if we continue this case by case situation there's a very real risk that a child will die. So they do need to all be brought to Australia for care and treatment with some urgency."
Manus Island refugee Behrouz Boochani says refugees would accept a ban on travelling to Australia if they were resettled in America or New Zealand.
He says the by-election has given refugees hope that things in Canberra are changing.
"Many political things changed over the past five years but nothing positive happened for us. But this time I think we should be hopeful because we have great support by some politicians in the parliament for the first time."
Sentiment could also be changing in the Australian community as demonstrated by about 1000 protesters at the Children's March for Nauru in Melbourne on Sunday.
"Morrison, Dutton, Shorten - we are marching now and will be voting soon. This generation has a conscience and your cruel policies of locking people up do not fly with us."
But political scientist Binoy Kampmark from Melbourne's RMIT University says he's sceptical that the by election winner will be able to bring about the evacuation of refugee children from Nauru to Australia.
"The reality is that the government, and to a certain extent the Labor party in opposition, they are also hedging their bets as to a policy that is on the one hand responsive to removing the refugees from the island but on the other hand, not sure where they go afterwards. The government seems to be very much in favour of preventing them from returning or coming to Australia except in the most extreme circumstances and that's something I don't think Phelps is necessarily going to change."
Dr Kampmark says despite the spotlight shone on Nauru by the Wentworth by-election, the majority of Australians may be so hardened to offshore detention that they accept its human consequences.
