Controversial minister to become Australia’s rights envoy

Following the ruling, 267 asylum seekers who were on mainland Australia to receive medical attention and other services are likely to be returned to Nauru, an island country in the Central Pacific.

“When you see thousands of Australians coming to rallies at a moment’s notice saying it’s unacceptable we need to go further than just managing a situation, these are human beings, these are children”, she said. Churches invoked the ancient Christian tradition to offer protection to the 267 people – including 37 babies – facing imminent transfer to Nauru.

The PM didn’t indicate the Government would be taking actions to accept that offer; instead, he told host Barrie Cassidy “if we don’t take a firm line, we know what the consequences will be”.

“Where is the humanity, where is the compassion from the federal government in this time”.

As reported last week, a draft cabinet document revealed a raft of dramatic measures being considered by the Turnbull government, including subjecting the 12,000 refugees to be taken from Syria and Iraq to more stringent character, identity and security checks than European countries and changing the make-up of the intake to minimise the risk of “extremist infiltration”.

Pezzullo confirmed the leak had been referred to the AFP as “potential criminal breach”, that could result in a jail term.

Late Monday, rally organisers, who said they have been overwhelmed by the level of support, called the offices of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and held up the phone as people chanted: “let them stay”.

Ruddock, 72, a long-standing member of Amnesty International who refused the rights group’s request to stop wearing its lapel badge while asylum seekers were being deported, defended his role in implementing the government’s tough policy, which stripped refugees of legal rights they would have enjoyed on the Australian mainland.

“One was an older child”, ABC news director Gaven Morris said in a statement.

She said the attacker was another child transferee.

“While I believe that in such clearly exceptional circumstances as these, you have a clear obligation to support these children and their families, a political argument is no benefit to them”, Mr Andrews told Mr Turnbull. The boy is living in the community with family in NSW, she said.

He said since Operation Sovereign Borders began cracking down on the illegal trade “that price has dropped significantly” and people smugglers were “struggling to find … customers”.