Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim said Turnbull's leaked phone call was proof the Australian government trades refugees like cattle.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told US President Donald Trump during their heated January phone call America did not have to accept any of the refugees held on Nauru or Manus Island. Mr Trump asked. "He is a great mutual friend, yes", Mr Turnbull responded.
The pleasantries, however, soon evaporated as Mr Turnbull firmly pushed Mr Trump to accept the Nauru-Manus Island refugee deal Australia struck in 2016 with then USA president Barack Obama. Transcripts of the conversation published Thursday by the Washington Post offer proof that Trump has always been aware that the Mexican government will not fund the border wall project, despite his endless assurances to the contrary.
Mr Trump told Mr Turnbull the refugee deal was "a awful deal, a disgusting deal", would make him look like a "dope" and "a weak and ineffective leader", and he feared the refugees would turn into terrorists who would pull off San Bernardino or World Trade Center-style terror attacks in the US. Turnbull insists to Trump the deal is still on.
Mr Turnbull: "You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it".
Both leaders visited the USA after their phone conversations in late January, and immigration continues to be an important issue for Trump, whose executive order to limit immigration from several Muslim-majority countries partially went into effect in June after stiff legal challenges.
'You can decide to take 1000 or 100. So we said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Noble [sic] Prize winning genius, we will not let you in. "The obligation is to only go through the process". It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week. I am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country.' 'It is important to you and it is embarrassing to me. "And now I am agreeing to take 2000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position".
The President wrapped up the hour long call after just 24 minutes, even saying his chat with Russian President Vladimir Putin was more pleasant than speaking with the PM. I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day.
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Trump: Look, I spoke to Putin, Merkel, Abe of Japan, to France today and this was my most unpleasant call because I will be honest with you.
Mr Turnbull tried a more diplomatic tack, telling the President: "Thank you for your commitment".
"You are worse than I am", Trump told the premier in a remark apparently meant as a compliment, the paper reported.
Turnbull: Okay, I will explain why.
Turnbull: This is a very big issue for us, particularly domestically.
"The fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall-I have to", Trump tells Nieto at one moment on the call. I guarantee you they are bad.
Turnbull replied that the people in question are economic refugees denied entry to Australia because of a policy against human smuggling, not because they are accused of any crimes.
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