Cathy McGowan knows a few things about stirring up the federal government and will spend the next few weeks travelling around the country to encourage community groups to do the same when it comes to the issue of refugees.
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The indefinite detention of refugees on Manus Island and Nauru was something she felt was unresolved when she retired as Indi MP.
She landed in Tasmania on Thursday to start a series of meetings aimed at getting people organised.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said her government is willing to accept refugees on humanitarian grounds, and Ms McGowan agreed this was the logical answer.
"If we can get enough grassroots people talking to their Liberal members of Parliament, saying New Zealand is the answer, then they might put the pressure on," Ms McGowan said.
"I think (Prime Minister) Scott Morrison is entrenched and thinks 'I said no, I'm not going to do it' ... There's no legal reason why they can't do that, it's got to be ideology."
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It comes after she spent two weeks in Papua New Guinea and visited Manus Island.
"It's got to end sometime, it can't keep going forever, and they want it over and done with," Ms McGowan said.
"If we're trying to get Papua New Guinea to be a good neighbour for us and not go with China, then we're actually going to have to treat them as a much more mature neighbour and not do this sort of thing."
Now her focus is not solely as Indi's MP, Ms McGowan said she feels like she can pass on her experience to other community groups around the country - her next stops after Tasmania will be Brisbane Adelaide and Western Australia to continue talking about refugees in detention.
"I'm doing these meetings all around the country to encourage people to get it finished and close it down," she said.
"It's got to end sometime, it can't keep going forever."
