Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton says Australia may take up New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees when and if it will not encourage more boat arrivals

The Home Affairs Minister gave his strongest sign yet that the government will take up the six-year-old offer, days after New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Scott Morrison held bilateral talks.

"I have never ruled out the New Zealand option but I've made the point and I make it again today - now is not the right time for us to be sending people to New Zealand," Mr Dutton said.

"There may be a time when we can exercise the New Zealand option - we're grateful for it, but we will exercise that option when and if it is in our national interest and it's not going to restart boats."

The Home Affairs Minister has previously argued that accepting the New Zealand offer would encourage boat arrivals because refugees may consider the country a backdoor route to Australia.

Mr Dutton also revealed that 575 refugees had been resettled under the deal struck between former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former United States president Barack Obama, and that a further 107 people on Manus Island have had refugee applications denied by the government.

The former leadership aspirant confirmed on Tuesday that a vessel with five Sri Lankans had been intercepted over the weekend, the 34th attempted boat arrival since 2013.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese accused the government of leaking news of the boat arrival to The Australian newspaper to bolster the case for repealing medevac legislation.

News of the boat arrival came as the first medevac panel report released on Monday revealed that there were 73 admissions to Nauru's medical centre in the first three months of 2019. Doctors held 8260 consultations.

Refugees and asylum seekers in Papau New Guinea received 1134 primary health consultations, 472 mental health consultations and 375 specialist consultations.

Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape on Monday called on Australia to remove its refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island.

New Zealand's Ms Ardern said after last week's bilateral meetings the refugee deal was not discussed but stressed the offer could be accepted any time.

She said Australia was deporting too many New Zealanders convicted of criminal offences and warned it was having a "corrosive" impact on the trans-Tasman relationship.

"I just think we can't take our friendship for granted, we can't take our closeness for granted. And if there is something that is causing concern for one side of a friendship, it should be raised," Ms Ardern said.