Scott Morrison voted very strongly against doctor-initiated medical transfers for asylum seekers

The majority voted in favour of a motion to pass the bill in the House of Representatives. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a third time. This means that the bill will now go to the Senate for them to decide whether they want the bill to become law.

What does the bill do?

The bill was introduced in order to:

• remove provisions inserted by the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2019 (the medical transfer provisions) which created a framework for the transfer of transitory persons (and their family members, and other persons recommended to accompany the transitory person) from regional processing countries to Australia for the purposes of medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment; and
• provide for the removal from Australia, or return to a regional processing country, of transitory persons who are brought to Australia under the medical transfer provisions, once the temporary purpose for which they were brought to Australia is complete.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the bill's main idea. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time. This means they can now discuss it in more detail.

What does the bill do?

The bill was introduced in order to:

• remove provisions inserted by the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2019 (the medical transfer provisions) which created a framework for the transfer of transitory persons (and their family members, and other persons recommended to accompany the transitory person) from regional processing countries to Australia for the purposes of medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment; and
• provide for the removal from Australia, or return to a regional processing country, of transitory persons who are brought to Australia under the medical transfer provisions, once the temporary purpose for which they were brought to Australia is complete.

The majority voted in favour of a motion that "the Senate amendments be agreed to with the amendments as set out in the schedule circulated to honourable Members."

Why is this vote significant?

According to ABC News, this vote represents the first Government in almost 80 years to lose a vote on its own legislation.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest, the bill was introduced to make various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws, including:

• clarifying that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable;
• providing that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account;
• providing that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis; and
• amending the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge.