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November 29, 2023
Preventive detention push
Sex offenders and violent criminals deemed a risk to the community will be locked up again after being released by the High Court under planned new "tough" preventive measures on non-citizens from Labor.
Three weeks after a court ruling triggered the release of 141 non-citizens including rapists, murderers and pedophiles Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said the federal government was "moving quickly" to implement a preventive detention regime before parliament wraps up for the year next week.
Labor's response followed the High Court publishing the reasons behind its November 8 ruling that a Rohingya man convicted of child sex offences, but unable to be deported, could not be indefi nitely held in immigration detention by the government.
In a unanimous decision, the court ruled detention was unconstitutional from the moment it was clear there were no ave nues to remove a non-citi zen from the country "in the reasonably foreseeable future".
But the court said release from detention did not grant asylum seekers the right to remain in Australia, noting they could be deported or resettled in another country if their situations changed.
The court also left the door open for individuals convicted of serious crimes to be re-detained if they presented "an unacceptable risk of reoffending".
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the court's reasons "endorsed" the Coalition's calls to impose preventive detention on "very high-risk offenders".
Mr Paterson said Labor should have the legislation ready to pass immediately.
Four of the released detainees have refused electronic ankle bracelet monitoring imposed under emergency laws passed earlier this month, including one individual who police were unable to contact on Monday.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles would not confirm if that detainee had been located when asked in Question Time on Tuesday.
The four detainees were referred the Australian Federal Police who declined to comment on their investigations.
Meanwhile, two Sydney sisters have been left "terrified" after this week learning the man who murdered their mother and tried to destroy her body in a vat of acid was released on Friday as a result of the High Court ruling.
Serrah and Bianca Katz have been informed their former stepfather Tony Kellisar was freed 25 years after he killed their mother, Svetlana Podgoyetsky, in Melbourne.
Andrew Katz, who later adopted Serrah and Bianca, said the women were extremely distressed by news of Kellisar's release.
"The thought that this guy is roaming free and probably might end up here in Sydney has the girls terrified," he said.
