November 29, 2023
The Federal Government will bring in the “toughest possible preventative detention regime” next week that could result in freed immigration criminals being put back in detention.
It comes as the Australian Federal Police on Wednesday found a former detainee who went missing on release before a GPS tracker could be put on him.
The man is now complying with the stringent visa conditions.
The Coalition said it was prepared to sit late into every night this week to get patched-up legislation fixed to keep the community safe.
The Government will instead spend a week drafting the changes to the legislation and ensure the authorities tasked to enforce the conditions are prepared.
More than 140 people — including convicted child sex offenders and murderers — have been let out into the community after the High Court overturned a 20-year precedent on November 8 by ruling it unlawful to keep them in immigration detention indefinitely.
The Federal Government will bring in the “toughest possible preventative detention regime” next week that could result in freed immigration criminals being put back in detention.
It comes as the Australian Federal Police on Wednesday found a former detainee who went missing on release before a GPS tracker could be put on him.
The man is now complying with the stringent visa conditions.
The Coalition said it was prepared to sit late into every night this week to get patched-up legislation fixed to keep the community safe.
The Government will instead spend a week drafting the changes to the legislation and ensure the authorities tasked to enforce the conditions are prepared.
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More than 140 people — including convicted child sex offenders and murderers — have been let out into the community after the High Court overturned a 20-year precedent on November 8 by ruling it unlawful to keep them in immigration detention indefinitely.
Emergency legislation to impose curfews and track the freed detainees with ankle bracelets was pushed through Parliament eight days later.
The Albanese Government is now patching it up to allow authorities to re-detain the released criminals after the court published the reasons behind its decision on Tuesday.
The reasons effectively recommend a legislative fix, with the judges suggesting the court would view a preventative detention regime as allowable.
The legislation is set to pass Parliament on December 7 — the last sitting day of the year.
The Commonwealth has decided to focus this week on dealing with a separate High Court issue on stripping Australian citizenship from terrorists.
“Next week, the Government will introduce a robust preventative detention and community safety order regime, modelled on high-risk terrorist laws enacted under the former government and which have always enjoyed bipartisan support,” a Government spokesman said.
“The Coalition should support these laws too.”
Ministers told Parliament that then immigration minister Peter Dutton allowed a man — known as NZYQ who was at the centre of the High Court case — to apply for a new visa, which meant he could stay in Australia.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the updated legislation would be the “toughest possible preventative detention regime”.
“Now to do that, we are going to need the Liberals to work with us. Peter Dutton is very good at saying ’no’ and they’ve played a lot of politics with this issue,” Ms O’Neil told ABC News.
“Let’s see now if they come into the Parliament and help us keep the Australian community safe.”
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson accused Labor of acting too slowly.
“It appears the Government is again not ready to go with draft legislation to introduce a preventative detention regime and will instead wait until next week to do so,” he said on X.
“They have learned nothing from their slow response to the High Court’s ruling.”
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley labelled the Home Affairs Minister “incompetent, hopeless and hapless”.
“I’m just tired of Clare O’Neil every single day pointing the finger at the Opposition who have led the response to this debacle under her watch from the beginning,” she told Sky News.
“We will work with the Government — the last time the legislation didn’t go far enough.
“We will look at it carefully. We want detailed briefings. We want to be able to be confident in legislation that we pass will actually keep the community safe.”
