The bill will allow refugees to live and work in Australia for three to five years, but denies them permanent protection. It was passed by 34 votes to 32 in the senate and later backed by MPs. Australia currently detains all asylum seekers who arrive by boat, holding them in offshore processing camps. It says that those found to be refugees will not be permanently resettled in Australia, under tough new policies aimed at ending the flow of boats. It also has a backlog of cases – about 30,000 – relating to asylum seekers who arrived before the current policies were put in place. Those people live in detention camps or in the community under bridging visas that do not allow them to work. To secure enough support in parliament to pass the bill, the government made concessions. Children will be freed from detention on Christmas Island, an offshore camp where conditions have been strongly criticised.

The government won the vote in the senate – where it does not have a majority – with the support of the Palmer United Party (PUP) which had negotiated several changes, including the provision relating to children detained on Christmas Island. He welcomed the “long overdue” decision to release children from detention, but condemned their use by the government “as a bargaining chip for a destructive legislative package to seriously weaken refugee protection”. Opposition leaders had also accused the government of using asylum seekers as political pawns. Speaking before the senate vote, senior Labor figure Tony Burke said Immigration Minister Scott Morrison was “effectively wanting to use people as hostages”.