March 13, 2024
A technical bungle identified in December by the Home Affairs Department has forced the government to reissue visas for 148 of the 149 dangerous non-citizens who were released into the community and drop charges against 10 of them.
Labor said it had "moved immediately" to fix the problem, with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles providing an assurance that there had been "no lapse in the constant monitoring of this cohort as a result of this technical matter".
Ten of the former detainees who breached their visa conditions after being released following the High Court's landmark "NZYQ" ruling can now no longer be charged because they were never issued with valid visas in the first place.
The Australian understands that the visas initially issued were not valid because the "Bridging Visa R" subclass contained a technical contradiction.
This technical problem with the visas, which dates back to 2013, was identified by the Department of Home Affairs in early December and fixed. But not before the visas had already been issued to the 149 detainees.
Mr Giles said the government had "taken all necessary steps to protect public safety in an evolving legal environment".
"At all times we will be guided by the protection of Australian people and adherence to the law," he said.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said: "Just when you think it can't possibly get worse, the Albanese government stoops to new levels of incompetence on national security and community safety.
"Repeat offenders are now walking free unpunished because they can't even issue visas correctly. The Australian people are entitled to expect better but sadly they won't get it from this weak Labor government." Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said that many of the men released into the community had "committed serious crimes".
"The Home Affairs Minister herself has said they should all be locked back up," Ms Ley said. "We have repeatedly seen mishandling from the government on this issue and there are now serious questions that Anthony Albanese needs to address about what has gone on here." Mr Giles said on Tuesday night that it had become apparent there was an "error" in relation to the Bridging Visa R category that "goes back a decade".
"We are in the process of completing the finalisation of granting new visas which deals with this technical issue, to ensure that our focus on community safety has not been compromised," he said.
Mr Giles said the withdrawal of charges against those who had breached their visa conditions would not have any bearing on any separate proceedings under way against former detainees who had breached state or territory laws.
The High Court's landmark decision on November 8 outlawed indefinite detention, finding that non-citizens like NZYQ needed to be released into the community if they had no prospect of being resettled elsewhere in the foreseeable future.
Labor has come under pressure from the Coalition for not yet seeking orders to lock up any of the former detainees under special preventative detention legislation rushed through parliament in December, despite the formation of a taskforce of 20 Home Affairs lawyers to prepare applications.
The new laws allow the government to request preventive detention orders for the released criminals.
Mr Giles said the government was doing "everything possible" to "ensure community safety".
