There's one Tamil asylum seeker family that's put the Government in a very uncomfortable position lately.

The Muragappans, known more widely as the Biloela family after the small Queensland town they lived in for years, have been trying to win the right to stay in Australia for almost a decade.

The family has been on Christmas Island since 2018, and that seemed unlikely to change.

But then on Monday of last week, their four-year-old daughter Tharnicaa became so sick that she was rushed to a Perth hospital with her mother Priya. 

After immense public pressure, the rest of the family was allowed to follow.

Today on The Signal, we ask why the Biloela family is proving to be such an exception.

Is their case a one-off, or a weather vane for a much bigger shift?

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David Speers, Host, ABC Insiders