The Morrison government's plan to tear up asylum seeker medical evacuation laws has passed the first hurdle of parliament.
The coalition used its majority to clear the repeal bill through the House of Representatives on Thursday, but faces a tougher test in the Senate.
Before the legislation cleared the lower house, Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles said he was proud to support the current medevac process.
"I am very proud to stand here with all my Labor colleagues and our friends on the crossbench in defence of Australian values of humanity, of looking after people in need in our care," he told parliament.
Mr Giles criticised coalition MPs for not taking part in debate on the bill and therefore not explaining why the medevac process should be abolished.
Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie said it felt "awful" when the bill cleared the lower house.
"This is so unnecessary, so cruel. To deny a sick person a clear pathway to medical care is just wicked," she tweeted.
The legislation will be scrutinised by a Senate committee, and is expected to come up for debate in November.
Eventually, Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie is likely to cast the pivotal vote.
The crossbencher has formed a loose alliance with the Centre Alliance minor party - which opposes repealing the laws - but is not bound to vote with them.
Labor's attempted amendments to the repeal - which condemned Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton for inaccurately describing the medical transfer process - were voted down in the lower house on Wednesday night.
The medevac laws were enacted against Mr Dutton's wishes earlier this year, when the government lacked a majority.
The laws have given doctors a greater say in transferring sick refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru to the Australian mainland for medical treatment.
During debate on the bill, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus shared a story of an asylum seeker family who were first sent to Nauru in 2014.
The family included a mother, her young son, an older son and his wife.
In 2018, after four years in detention the older son took his life, causing a downward spiral in the mental health of his family members.
Lawyers for the family contacted Mr Dutton five times without reply, asking for the clients to be evacuated to undergo medical treatment.
"It should not take many months, a suicide, multiple suicide attempts, countless medical reports and an application to the Federal Court of Australia for vulnerable people in Australia's care to receive urgent medical assistance," Mr Dreyfus said.
"The solicitor, the judge and the doctors were doing their job. The medevac laws merely require this callous and incompetent minister to do his."
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Australian Associated Press
