April 7, 2025
Monday 7 April 2025
Rhiannon Down
The Australian
Allegra Spender has claimed credit for giving Labor “political cover” for allowing hundreds of people out of immigration detention, saying it would never have occurred if there had been more Coalition MPs in parliament.
Ms Spender branded the ending of indefinite immigration detention as one of the major successes of the Albanese government, and said it would have been harder for Labor to implement pro-refugee policies without the teal independents.
When asked by local publication The Beast whether refugees would still be languishing in immigration detention without the teal independent wave that unseated six moderate Liberals in 2022, Ms Spender answered “absolutely”.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson seized on Ms Spender’s “bizarre” remarks in the video interview, accusing the Wentworth MP of “boasting about her role in the release of more than 300 violent non-citizens into the community by the Albanese government”.
Declaring that the nation had come a “long way” in assisting refugees since Labor came to power, Ms Spender said a lot of positive work had been happening under the radar, including increasing the humanitarian intake from 13,000 to 20,000.
“We have stopped effectively this indefinite detention of refugees,” she said.
The High Court ruled in the landmark NZYQ case that indefinite detention was unconstitutional, triggering the release of about 150 dangerous non-citizens who could not be returned to their home country but had failed the character test to be granted a visa.
Since the decision was handed down in November 2023, the number of detainees freed under the ruling has grown to more than 300, including murderers, rapists and pedophiles.
Ms Spender said the election of the teal independents had played a role in more refugees being set free, because otherwise the seats would be occupied by Coalition MPs.
“I think the independents gave the government political cover to be able to deal with this, because refugees has been an area that, you know, the Coalition has really hammered Labor on in the past,” she said.
“And … the first debate we ever did actually in parliament was on refugees and on putting pressure on the government to do more for refugees.
“So I think if, if you had all the Libs back in these seats and was such as tight of a parliament as it was before … it would have been much harder for the government to do it.”
Ms Spender on Sunday told The Australian: “Refugees who are not a risk to public safety should not be held in indefinite detention.”
Senator Paterson criticised Ms Spender – who defeated Liberal MP Dave Sharma to win the blue ribbon seat in the 2022 election – for supporting the end of indefinite detention, which had resulted in the release of the NZYQ cohort.
He said more than a third of those released had reoffended, including one man who brutally
bashed a Perth grandmother who was being treated for cancer last year.
“It is truly bizarre that Allegra Spender is boasting about her role in the release of more than 300 violent non-citizens into the community by the Albanese government,” Senator Paterson said.
“More than 100 of the former detainees have been charged with new offences since their release from immigration detention, including an alleged home invasion where a grandmother was violently bashed.
“Teal politicians have made it clear they can’t deliver community safety; only a Dutton Coalition government can be trusted to do
so.”