November 16, 2023
The 84 detainees released from immigration detention could be subject to stricter conditions such as curfews, wearing ankle bracelets and jail sentences if any of the conditions are breached under the government’s emergency legislation.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said early on Thursday morning the opposition would be briefed on the legislation which would increase the Commonwealth’s powers over the detainees’ release conditions following the High Court decision last week that indefinite detention was illegal.
“Today our government will introduce tough new laws into our parliament that will give the Commonwealth the power to put in place very strict visa conditions, new visa conditions that will help us ensure that the community is kept safe during this time,” she said.
“These conditions are very significant, they include the ability of the Commonwealth to impose ankle monitoring bracelets on people who have been released from detention. They include the power for the Commonwealth to impose very strict curfews on people who have been released from detention.”
O’Neil said the new laws would also have criminal sanctions imposed on anyone who broke their visa conditions.
“There are jail terms attached to the end of that, so for the people who are released from detention … we have a simple message for them: we will set the strictest possible conditions for you. If you do not follow them, you will end up back in jail.”
The announcement follows a week of sustained political pressure for the government as it struggled to explain what measures it had put in place to ensure community safety following the release of 84 detainees.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles introduced the legislation into parliament on Thursday morning, flagging the additional changes to amend the Migration Act.
“These amendments are necessary as an immediate response following the High Court’s decision. Further responses may be required once we have received the High Court’s reasons for [its] decision,” Giles said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told the House they were briefed by the government that 84 detainees had now been released with eight more set to be freed, arguing they want more time to consider the draft legislation to make amendments.
“The Prime Minister [Anthony Albanese] has taken a decision not to re-detain these 84 serious criminals but worse than that, we were asking for a briefing on this matter, which was provided at 7.15 this morning,” he said.
“We think even on the first quick read of it, it is completely and totally inadequate … [the government] come in here, they move a motion which doesn’t allow us to amend that bill at all.”
In ferocious scenes in parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minster Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton clashed when Dutton moved a motion that raised concern about a rise in antisemitism while also demanding the government “bring forward any legislation necessary to neutralise the threat posed by the hardcore criminals”.
Albanese said Dutton had attempted to “weaponise antisemitism in this chamber and make it a partisan issue” and that the opposition sought to link antisemitism to the High Court decision.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said on Thursday the government’s emergency legislation did not go far enough.
Paterson described the 18-page-long proposed law changes as the “bare minimum”, arguing the measures to increase restrictions on those released should have been put in place last week.
“The government doesn’t seem willing to test the proposition that, for example, a high-risk terrorist offender regime could be applied to some of this cohort; that a preventative detention order could be applied, or a control order could be applied, or a continuing detention could be applied,” Senator Paterson said.
