November 7, 2024
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well, the government has now lost a high court battle over the law requiring these former immigration detained detainees to be monitored by ankle bracelets and live curfews. It just keeps getting worse. Senator James Paterson is the shadow Home Affairs Minister and joins us now. James, good morning.
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you, Stephen.
CENATIEMPO: This is extraordinary. I mean, I don't know how many times you can stuff up one policy.
PATERSON: Well, Labor looks like they want to demonstrate how many times you can. It is an embarrassing defeat from the Albanese government because when they passed these laws before Christmas last year, we repeatedly asked them are they legally robust, are they constitutionally sound? And they reassured us, including in the Senate chamber during the debate, that they were. And yet they've lost again. And the scary thing about this is that there are very real ramifications for Australians. This is 215 violent non-citizen offenders who now are legally in the community without any requirement to have a curfew or any requirement to wear an ankle bracelet.
CENATIEMPO: So what's the next step then? I mean, can legislation be passed to actually overturn this? I mean, obviously it just can't be allowed to say that over 200 hardened criminals are running around the streets.
PATERSON: Well, Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister, has promised to first issue regulations that will some way ameliorate this decision and then second, introduce legislation today to rectify it. But I haven't seen the regulations. I haven't seen the legislation. There's been no briefing offered up by the Albanese government and frankly, I've got no confidence that they will get it right this time, given that they stuffed it up last time and it will take a number of weeks before even the legislation can be passed because the Senate is not sitting for another couple of weeks.
CENATIEMPO: Because the problem is, is that they tried to rush it through last time and got the legislation wrong. They can't afford to make the same mistake again.
PATERSON: Exactly right and this is not a trivial concern. Of those 215 people, 65 of them have already been charged with state and territory criminal offences. That means they have committed new offences against Australians who became victims who never should have been. And this is not a cohort who are just accused of petty crimes. This includes 12 murderers, 66 sex offenders, 97 people convicted of assault and 15 people convicted of serious family violence.
CENATIEMPO: So do you try and write the legislation for them? Because, I mean, that was what happened last time. How do you try and contribute to a solution here?
PATERSON: We will be constructive. We will be bipartisan. The first and most important duty of government and opposition is to protect the community and keep Australians safe. So we will try and work with Labor to help them clean up their own mess, but they have to help us help them by being transparent about what their plans are. I want to see this legislation. I want to see these regulations. I want to get advice about whether or not it's legally robust because we just can't take it at face value this time, given how badly they stuffed it up last time.
CENATIEMPO: Extraordinary. James, good to talk to you. Thanks for your time.
PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS
