The leaked transcript of Turnbull’s call with Trump shows him at his worst

Turnbull’s government has called refugees “illegal” and treats them as criminals. It is a lie on which the Coalition has made itself popular.

• Julian Burnside *
• The Guardian
• * Julian Burnside is an Australian barrister and refugee advocate

About a week after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States, he had a phone conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The call focused on the deal earlier done with the Obama administration, under which the US would take a number of refugees currently held in Australian offshore detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus island and…

At the time the deal was disclosed, its terms were very vague.

In particular, no numbers were given: no one could tell just how many people from Nauru or Manus would be resettled in the…

• The leaked transcript…