John Key should "cause international embarrassment" to Australia if they do not accept an offer for New Zealand to take up to 150 people a year from offshore detention centres, Labour leader Andrew Little says.
"If the Australians aren't going to cooperate and allow New Zealand's offer to assist - which is the right thing to do - then John Key should cause international embarrassment to Australia," Little said today.
"This is a time to step up and say, in an age of world wide humanitarian crises, one that is on our doorstep, one that involves our nearest neighbour physically and diplomatically then we need to be applying a bit of a stiff arm on it and say, 'we can help.'"
Little's comments came after the release of a major report from Amnesty International, Island of Despair, concludes the detention centre is a "deliberate and systematic regime of neglect and cruelty".
The report was informed by a July visit to Nauru by Amnesty's senior crisis director, Anna Neistat, who concluded physical and sexual abuse were rife, and mental illness commonplace with both children and adults attempting suicide.