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Crime-time drama stars ex-detainees

July 31, 2024

Wednesday 31 July 2024
Rhiannon Down and Mohammad Alfares
The Australian

A quarter of the foreign offenders freed under  the High Court's NZYQ ruling have been charged with a crime since their  release, new figures reveal, piling pressure on Home Affairs Minister Tony  Burke to ask the courts immediately to put released criminals back into  detention.
 
 The Coalition demand for Mr Burke to take tougher action against released  detainees could face roadblocks from leading members of the judiciary, with a  Supreme Court judge condemning Labor's attempts to jail curfew-breaching  detainees as "ridiculously harsh".
 
 As Mr Burke warns he will not have any "sympathy" for criminal  non-citizens, The Australian can reveal 39 out of the 159 former detainees  have been hit with criminal charges since the landmark November decision  triggered their release.
 
 The figures, which include 10 charges for breaching ankle monitoring or  curfew conditions imposed by their visa and 29 for state-based offences, have  prompted the Coalition to demand that Mr Burke use preventive detention  measures to lock up foreigners who pose an "unacceptable risk" on  what is only his second full day in the troubled home affairs and immigration  portfolios.
 
 In a sign of the dual pressures Mr Burke is set to face on the issue,  Victorian Supreme Court judge Michael Croucher criticised laws imposing a  minimum oneyear jail term for disobeying the curfew requirements for the NZYQ  cohort.
 
 Justice Croucher granted Sudan-born Abdelmoez Mohamed Elawad bail on Monday  after the serial offender, who has racked up more than 208 charges including  18 for weapons possession, over his lifetime, was charged with breaching his  curfew. The judge questioned what the "world (has) come to".
 
 "You can't seriously call this a serious offence, simply breaching a  curfew notwithstanding the risk that he may be thought to pose by some board,  surely," Justice Croucher told the court on Monday.
 
 "My guess is that any reasonably informed member of the public, whatever  views they had about immigration detention or the like, would say that a  person that breaches his curfew should not be in jail for merely breaching  his curfew." Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson urged Mr  Burke to use the preventivedetention regime, based on legislation for  terrorists, to jail foreigners who posed a risk to the community.
 
 Senator Paterson said figures revealing that, as of May 27, a quarter of the  NZYQ cohort had reoffended underscored Labor's failure in responding to the  detainee crisis.
 
 The powers under the preventive-detention legislation passed seven months  before Anthony Albanese's weekend reshuffle have not been used to date,  despite former immigration minister Andrew Giles revealing that six  applications to use the powers were being reviewed by experts and 26 were in  the "advanced stage of preparation" in May.
 
 "Criminal non-citizen detainees are on a serious crime spree, with 39 of  them charged with offences since they were released by the Albanese  government," Senator Paterson told The Australian.
 
 "And yet seven months on, Labor still hasn't used the preventive-detention  powers the parliament gave them to protect the community, despite Andrew Giles  promising in May 6 applications were nearly ready and a further 26 were  close.
 
 "Tony Burke must get his skates on and get these high-risk offenders off  the streets before they commit more crimes against innocent  Australians."
 
 On Tuesday, Mr Burke vowed he would leave "no stone unturned" in  his efforts to ensure community safety and address the immigration detainee  issue, while leaving the door open to introducing new legislation to tackle  the issue. "I think it's too early to be able to give anything  definitive on that," he told ABC radio.
 
 "Suffice to say, I've already asked those questions and started that  conversation with the department and had a look at it, and I'm very mindful  that this is a highly litigated area ... This is a policy area that never  stands still. It's always litigated.
 
 "There's always attempts to move boundaries, and what you have to make  sure is that your resolve is completely clear. And that's probably at this  stage, the best I can offer you." Mr Giles and former home affairs  minister Clare O'Neil introduced controversial legislation that would jail  non-citizens who refused to co-operate with efforts to deport them in the  leadup to another pivotal High Court challenge to indefinite detention, but  the bill has fallen off the legislative agenda since the commonwealth won the  case in April. A case centred around an Eritrean man, known as YBFZ, who is  arguing his visa conditions are unconstitutional, will be heard by the High  Court on Tuesday.
 
 Mr Burke acknowledged the slew of legal challenges before the courts, which  threaten to undercut the government's powers to impose visa conditions and  detain non-citizens who cannot be removed from Australia. He promised to  implement the "full belts and braces of everything that's possible to  maximise our legal position".
 
 "For people who have come on visas, and while they are on visas, you're  a guest in the country," he said. "When you're on a visa, (and) you  have committed violent acts of crime. Those individuals are not a priority.  They're not people I have sympathy for, and they're people where no stone  will be left unturned."
 
 The latest Community Protection Board report shows the cohort now being  monitored by the law-enforcement body has grown to 178 non-citizens, with 103  of the group being required to wear ankle monitors and 99 subject to curfew  conditions.
 
 Mr Burke rejected Senator Paterson's criticism that he would not ensure  sufficient security checks for Palestinians fleeing Gaza because of the  political pressure the southwest Sydney MP was under from his multi- cultural  seat of Watson and the Muslim Votes Matter group, dismissing the concerns as  an "idiotic statement".
 
 The number of arrivals fleeing the Israel-Hamas war has soared, with 507  Palestinians in Australia on bridging visas and 698 on visitor visas, with  119 lodging protection applications in May.
 
 "The issue of making sure that you deal with security checks is  fundamental fundamental to the immigration program," Mr Burke said.
 
 "I have never hesitated to reject visas or to cancel visas, absolutely  never hesitated." '

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