Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has written to the Prime Minister offering to "accept full responsibility" for the families and children brought to Australia from Nauru.
In a letter to Malcolm Turnbull – posted on Mr Andrews' Facebook page and Twitter account on Saturday – the Labor premier told the Prime Minister that Victoria would gladly take on the asylum seekers rather than have them return to "a life of physical and emotional trauma" in immigration detention.
Mr Andrews' letter comes after the High Court this week upheld the legality of detaining asylum seekers indefinitely on foreign shores, clearing the way for the return of more than 220 asylum seekers to Nauru, along with as 37 babies born in Australia.
"While I believe that in such clearly exceptional circumstances as these, you have a clear obligation to support these children and their families, a political argument is no benefit to them," Mr Andrews told Mr Turnbull.
"Instead, I write to inform you that Victoria will accept full responsibility for all of these children and their families, including the provision of housing, health, education and welfare services. I want these children and their families to call Victoria home."
However, Mr Andrews told the Prime Minister that such a move would be wrong, unfair and un-Australian.
"A sense of compassion is not only in the best interests of these children and their families. It is also in the best interest of our status and a fair and decent nation," he said.
"There are infants among this group who were born into this country. Sending them to Nauru will needlessly expose them to a life of physical and emotional trauma.
"It's wrong. Medical professionals tell us this. Humanitarian agencies tell us this. Our values tell us this too. Sending these children and their families to Nauru is not the Australian way."
The Premier's stance won him support on Twitter.
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