Doctors will have greater powers to evacuate asylum-seekers currently held in Australia’s offshore detention centres after Dr Kerryn Phelps’ medivac bill finally passed federal parliament.

The changes, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, would allow “rapists, murderers and paedophiles” into the country, according to the Coalition’s Senate leader Mathias Cormann.

But it represents a humiliating defeat, a day after the government suffered a historic loss on the issue in the Lower House.

Under the reforms, drawn up by Sydney GP and independent MP Dr Kerryn Phelps, two doctors will be able to assess patients and, depending on their findings, recommend medical evacuations from Manus Island and Nauru.