May 28, 2024
The Albanese government's seemingly languid response to preventing numerous freed immigration detainees from brazenly breaking the law is threatening to fan a minor political problem into a formidable election issue.
Seven months after their release attracted headlines, nearly a fifth of former immigration detainees put into the community as a result of the High Court's decision in November have been charged with committing offences.
According to March figures recently shown to the Senate by the Department of Home Affairs, at least 28 of the 153 people released on strict visa conditions after indefinite detention was declared unlawful have allegedly gone on to commit fresh crimes. The March 24 figure is a significant increase from the 18 former detainees who had been charged by state and territory police as of February 1.
The controversy came into sharp focus last month after a former detainee allegedly took part in a home invasion in which an elderly Perth couple were battered and robbed, prompting the Albanese government to admit it was powerless to intervene in state justice systems. Then Immigration Minister Andrew Giles faced difficulties last week when it emerged that a tribunal acting under ministerial direction 99 he had given last year as a safeguard against the former government's practice of deporting people to countries such as New Zealand, where they had no real ties had released a former detainee last March who went on to allegedly commit murder in Brisbane this month.
Australia's Migration Act had permitted Giles to order the detention of those denied a visa to remain legally in Australia on character grounds. The High Court last November reversed a 4-3 majority decision in the 2004 case of Al-Kateb v Godwin and ruled that indefinite detention of those who cannot be deported is punitive and therefore breached the Constitution's separation of powers. The key principle in a law-based democracy such as Australia was that the courts, and not politicians, should be responsible for criminal punishment and locking people up has been upheld.
The High Court cannot and should not make decisions based on politics or perceived political nous. But for a government, it's a must.
This is not a problem of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's making but it is his government's to resolve.
Handled poorly, it could have catastrophic consequences for the first-term government.
That said, the government does seem to be ambling towards finding a solution. Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson told the Herald's Angus Thompson that the government had still not applied to a judge for an order to redetain anyone who posed an unacceptable community risk more than six months after passing tough new legislation thanks to the opposition. "At least 28 members of the NZYQ cohort (people in detention whose visas have been cancelled or refused) have reoffended after being released into the community," Paterson said. "How bad does the detainee crime spree need to get before they act?" Riding hard on immigration, the opposition has also promised to scrap ministerial direction 99, put in place on January 23, 2023, to address long-held concerns from the New Zealand government that its citizens were being deported despite having stronger ties to Australia.
Clearly, the detainees' behaviour risks them outwearing their welcome. But the plethora of charges provided to the Senate suggests the government's previous slo-mo actions aimed at assuring the public that bad-egg detainees 76 are subject to electronic monitoring and 68 have a curfew are under control gives the Australian public scant confidence that Canberra has the situation in hand.
