By Farrah Tomazin and Heath Aston



Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has written to the Prime Minister offering to "accept full responsibility" for the asylum seekers who face being sent back to the remote island of Nauru in the wake of this week's High Court decision.

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 families and children rather than have them return to "a life of physical and emotional trauma" in immigration detention.

Mr Andrews' letter comes after the High Court upheld the legality of detaining asylum seekers indefinitely on foreign shores, clearing the way for the return of 267 asylum seekers to Nauru, including 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."

Mr Andrews' offer drew a mixed response on Saturday. Some accused the state leader of grandstanding on federal immigration matters.

But many others welcomed his stance.

However, the letter puts the Premier at odds with Labor's own National Platform – backed by opposition leader Bill Shorten - which supports offshore processing. This could prove dicey for Mr Shorten, particularly given the sensitivities over asylum seeker policy within the federal caucus and the broader rank-and-file.

Mr Turnbull's office said the Prime Minister had not yet directly received the letter from the Premier (Victoria insists it was sent before it was posted on social media) but would consider any options put forward once it was received.

Meanwhile, Mr Andrews infuriated some of his federal colleagues who have privately accused the Victorian premier of being "opportunistic in search of a headline". One Labor source said Mr Andrews voted in favour of offshore processing at July's ALP national conference and did not flag his weekend offer with the federal opposition.

Victoria's offer to take responsibility for the asylum seekers came after than 60 writers – including Nobel laureate JM Coetzee and Booker prize winner Peter Carey – also wrote to the prime minister and immigration minister Peter Dutton condemning the government's offshore detention policies as shameful and brutal.

In other developments this week, church leaders have openly defied the government by offering sanctuary to asylum seekers, while doctors risked jail to speak out about the conditions in detention, condemning them as "toxic" for children.

Mr Andrews told Mr Turnbull that returning the asylum seekers would be wrong, unfair and un-Australian. Based on costings previously done in preparation for the arrival of Syrian refugees, it is estimated that, on average, each refugee would require about $10,000 a year in state-based support.

"A sense of compassion is not only in the best interests of these children and their families. It is also in the best interests of our status and a fair and decent nation," the premier said.

"There are infants among this group who were born in 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, as well as praise from Getup, Labor for Refugees, and the Human Rights Law Centre. Victorian deputy Liberal leader David Hodgett was less impressed, saying: "We've got a VLine crisis, a deficit budget, increasing crime rates, billions wasted on tearing up the East West Link contract and Daniel Andrews is focused on cynical grandstanding on federal issues".

A spokeswoman for shadow immigration minister Richard Marles said: "This is a very complicated policy area and federal Labor has been calling on the government to find a credible third country for resettlement arrangements."