An asylum seeker accused of child molestation is being brought to Australia for medical treatment under the controversial "medevac" laws.
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Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has pounced on the case of the Burmese man as he tries to convince Senate crossbencher Jacqui Lambie to help repeal the legislation next week.
"This individual is an example of exactly why we called this a bad bill," Mr Dutton told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.
The man is alleged to have assaulted a child on Nauru but the complaint was later withdrawn.
Medical evacuations can be refused on national security grounds, or if a person has a serious criminal record.
However, Mr Dutton claims he is powerless to stop the man coming to Australia, and cannot force him to leave once he is in the country.
"It's infuriating and I think it poses a huge risk to the Australian public," he said.
The number of applications for transfers under the medevac laws has doubled in the past month.
"The lawyers are ramping it up as we expected they would," Mr Dutton said.
He said there were now two people in hospital on the mainland, another five who had declined treatment, and 43 who were refusing to undertake scans or pathology tests.
Senator Lambie will cast the deciding vote when the government tries to repeal the medevac laws.
"It will effectively come down to Jacqui's vote so we will continue to have negotiations and discussions with her," Mr Dutton said.
"The Senate is sitting next week, so we'll see how we go, but we've had good discussions with Jacqui and we'll see what happens next."
The medevac bill has not been included on the draft Senate program for next week but could be added if the government makes progress in its talks with the cross bench.
Australian Associated Press
