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November 28, 2023
NATALIE BARR: We're joined by Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Morning to you. So, four asylum seekers are refusing to wear these ankle bracelets, one of them police can't even find. We've spent 250 million trying to track them down. What should be done here by the government?
JAMES PATERSON: Nat, this has been a total and utter debacle from the Albanese government from start to finish. They weren't ready when the High Court handed down its decision two weeks ago. They didn't have legislation ready to go. They had to be forced into passing the legislation they did and then forced into toughening that legislation up. And before the Parliament this week is a further patch up job on the legislation which they stuffed up a couple of weeks ago. What really needs to happen now is pass new laws which can redetain at least the highest risk criminal offenders among this cohort, which includes rapists, murderers, paedophiles, and even at least one contract killer.
BARR: Hang on. The Court let them out, so how can the government put them back in again?
PATERSON: Well, actually, it's quite straightforward Nat, we have in this country a high risk terrorist offenders regime, and it allows the government to apply to a court to lock someone up on a continuing or preventative detention order if they pose a risk to the community.
BARR: But they're not terrorists, a lot of them, are they?
PATERSON: No, no, many of them are not. But I think they pose a risk to the community. They’re murderers, contract killers, paedophiles, child sex offenders, very serious criminals. They do pose a risk of reoffending in our community, and I think many of them should be locked back up and the government could pass new laws to allow them to do that. But they've been saying they can't do that until the High Court hands down its reasons. And they were saying that wasn't going to happen until next year. So over summer, we'd have no means of locking back up any of these people if they pose a risk to the community. Well, that is excuse has now evaporated from 2:15 pm onwards this afternoon when the High Court publishes its reasons. There'll be no reason not to pass those new laws to protect the community.
BARR: So, are you saying that? Well, I mean, we have the Home Affairs Minister on here every week, and she's been saying we can't put them back because the High Court has released them. You're saying the government has the power to pass laws to put these people back in because she's clearly saying they haven't.
PATERSON: The Home Affairs Minister is wrong. You cannot put them back into immigration detention indefinitely, but you can pass new laws to apply to a court to put them in jail because of the risk that they pose to the community. We do that already with terrorist offenders. There's no reason why we couldn't do it with these offenders based on the risk that they pose to the community. I don't think a non-citizen who has committed a child sex offence, who has murdered someone who has raped someone, should be roaming free in the community even if they have an ankle bracelet, although as you say, there's at least four that don't and one of them who's absconded. The police and the border force don't even know where this person is and we don't know what crime this person committed that led to their visa being cancelled. All we know is they’re loose in the community and that's a total failure by the Albanese government.
BARR: Okay, we'll put that to the Minister, James Paterson, thank you for your time.
PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS
