Tough new laws to address the government’s detainee disaster have passed the Senate.
The bill will now go to the House of Representatives tomorrow, where it is expected to pass with Coalition support.
Labor says it is committed to keeping the public safe while admitting it hopes the bill will pass the lower house much sooner than planned.
However, the Opposition is calling for more transparency from the Albanese government while accusing them of putting the safety of Australians in jeopardy.
It follows revelations from Home Affairs documents which show taxpayers funding travel and accommodation for convicted criminals released by the ruling.
A third detainee released into the community was arrested in Melbourne yesterday after breaching his reporting requirements.
He appeared in Dandenong Magistrates Court yesterday and made no application for bail.
The government has refused to say how many non-citizens new preventative detention laws would apply to.
Key points:
- The House of Representatives is likely to pass new preventative detention laws today
- The laws would make it possible to re-detain some non-citizens who were released under a landmark High Court ruling
- The attorney-general says the notion the government would apologise for the actions of detainees who have been arrested since their release is “absurd”
For the first time since the landmark High Court ruling that found indefinite detention to be illegal, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfuss, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil held a joint press conference.
A total of 148 non-citizens, some of whom are criminals, have been released into the community subject to surveillance measures such as ankle bracelet monitoring and curfews.
Three of the released detainees have been arrested and charged with a range of offences including indecent assault and breaching sex-offender registry conditions.
The immigration minister repeatedly dodged questions over who out of the cohort could be back behind bars.
“I’m sure that you would appreciate that the legislation, that I hope will be passed in the House of Representatives this afternoon, requires me to make an individual assessment before each application,” Mr Giles said.
Under the new community safety detention orders, people could be held for up to three years, and the orders would be reviewed each year.
Under the preventative detention order, the immigration minister would have to make an application to the court that the person is so dangerous, that they would probably commit another serious violent or sexual offence if they were in the community.
They are not capped at three years necessarily, however, the court would need to issue a new order every three years and those subjected to the new orders would be held in prison rather than in immigration detention.
If someone who has been released has a prior conviction for an offence punishable by seven years imprisonment or more, they can be subject to the scheme, but Mr Giles also refused to say if this applied to any of the released.
In an at-times-fiery press conference, the government pleaded with the Coalition to help them in passing the amendments to preventative immigration legislation.
The ministers were asked if the government should apologise for the actions of the three released detainees who had been arrested, an idea the attorney-general said was “absurd”.
“You are asking a cabinet minister of the Crown to apologise for upholding the law of Australia, for acting in accordance with the law of Australia, for following the instructions of the High Court of Australia,” he said.
“I will not be apologising for upholding the law. I will not be apologising for pursuing the rule of law and will not be apologising for acting, do not interrupt, I will not be apologising for acting in accordance with a High Court decision.”
The preventative detention laws were passed by the Senate on Tuesday night and the bill is now headed to the House of Representatives for a final vote. The citizenship-stripping bill passed after a debate was held in the Senate on Wednesday.
