Peter Dutton has backed down on controversial comments suggesting a quid pro quo with the Trump administration over refugee resettlement plans, after being corrected by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop from Washington on Thursday.
Defending himself on Thursday morning, the Immigration Minister said he was a "frank speaker" who was "not going to get bogged down in nuance and discussion" over the arrangement with the US.
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Bishop's move leaves Dutton undone
Cartoonist Matt Davidson gives his take on the Turnbull government's mixed signals over an alleged 'people swap' with the USA.
Mr Dutton sparked the confusion on Tuesday during an interview with conservative commentator Andrew Bolt, when he said for the first time that the Turnbull government's deal with the Obama administration to resettle asylum seekers being held on Manus Island and Nauru was linked to Australia's plan to resettle Central American refugees. He also insisted that transfers to Australia would only take place if US President Donald Trump held up his end of the bargain.
Opponents of the controversial resettlement deal jumped on the comments, which directly contradicted statements made by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and senior ministers in recent months.
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"We wouldn't take anyone until we had assurances people were going to go off Nauru and Manus," Mr Dutton said on Tuesday.
"One of the lessons we've learnt from past arrangements, say the Malaysia deal for example that Julia Gillard entered into, we accepted all the people from Malaysia [and] not one person went from Australia.
"So we're not going to be sucked into that sort of a silly outcome."
"It wasn't a people swap deal if that's the language people want to use [but] I don't have any problem with that characterisation if people want to put that."
On Wednesday, he sought to walk back the comments, conceding the two refugee deals were "separate".
Ms Bishop, who met US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson early on Thursday morning Australian time, moved to correct her cabinet colleague.
"That's not my understanding of our agreement with the United States and I believe that minister Dutton clarified the comments overnight," she said on Sky.
"He's made it quite clear that we have a humanitarian and refugee program; it's quite separate from the agreement we've reached with the United States.
"We accept over 13,000 people claiming humanitarian or refugee status, that's increasing to about 18,750. As part of a completely separate arrangement, we have requested the United States to assist resettling people who paid people smugglers to seek to come to Australia and are currently detained on Nauru."
Mr Trump slammed the agreement after a combative phone call with Mr Turnbull on January 28, describing plans for the US to accept up to 1250 refugees from Australia's offshore detention centres, as "dumb" and "the worst deal".
Mr Dutton said on Thursday the controversy was "a storm in a tea cup" and he doesn't care how the deal is categorised.
"In the end, people can use whatever language they want, which is the point that I was making, I'm not going to get bogged down in nuance and discussion," he said on 2GB radio.
"I'm a pretty frank speaker, I've been clear that it's not a people swap, they're two separate arrangements but in the end what's most important to us is to get people off Nauru and Manus."
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