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Key points
- The Coalition, Greens and crossbench teamed up in the Senate to delay the passing of the legislation.
- The laws would impose a prison sentence for immigration detainees who don’t cooperate with attempts to deport them.
- The minister would also have the power to ban visa classes for countries that don’t accept deportees.
Laws that would impose a mandatory minimum one-year prison sentence for immigration detainees who don’t cooperate with attempts to deport them have been held up and sent to an inquiry.
Labor tried to push legislation through parliament this week.
The Coalition, Greens and crossbench teamed up in the Senate on Wednesday to delay its passing and send it to a parliamentary inquiry as they questioned the need for urgency.
Why was the passing of the legislation delayed?
The legislation, which passed the lower house on Tuesday, also included penalties of up to five years behind bars and a $93,000 fine. The minister would also have the power to ban visa classes for countries that don’t accept deportees.
It was difficult for the Opposition to support its immediate passage without proper scrutiny in case of unintended consequences, Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson said.
Concerns include that banning visas from a particular country could lead to an increase in people trying to illegally sail to Australia with the use of people smugglers.
“[The government] couldn’t explain how many people this would affect, they couldn’t explain what the consequences of this would be for any upcoming High Court cases, they couldn’t explain how or when they would use this legislation,” Paterson said.
What happens next?
The laws come ahead of a who has made a legal bid for freedom.
The man is seeking to have an earlier High Court ruling, that indefinite immigration detention was illegal for those who could not be returned to a third country, also cover detainees who refuse to cooperate with their deportation.
The government received the draft legislation on Friday after commissioning it to pre-empt the court’s 17 April ruling.
Wednesday is parliament’s last sitting day before the ruling.
The Opposition would support parliament being recalled if the government made the case for its urgency or pass legislation after the decision, Paterson said.
“The government has also said they’re confident about their prospects in the ASF17 case,” he said.
“If they somehow fail in this case … we stand ready to bring the parliament back.”
The government had received advice that the legislation needed to be passed in this sitting week, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said.
Independent MP Monique Ryan raised concerns the legislation could mean that, if the government makes a mistake when determining if someone is a refugee or not, they could be deported to a country where their lives were at risk.
But there were numerous opportunities for a person to apply for asylum, Labor frontbencher Chris Bowen said.
“We are talking about people who came to Australia, overstayed a visa or came under false pretences,” he told ABC News.
Why has the bill been criticised?
The Greens have attacked the bill, saying it would unfairly punish asylum seekers.
“This is one of the many insidious ways power and privilege are wielded to perpetuate systems of oppression and marginalisation,” senator Mehreen Faruqi said.
Fast-tracking some of these applications meant they wouldn’t be fully considered, the Human Rights Law Centre argued.
The laws were drafted as quickly as possible to patch gaps in the immigration system, Home Affairs Department secretary Stephanie Foster said.
People not cooperating was “undermining the integrity of our migration laws”, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles told parliament as he defended the laws.
They were in line with Australia’s human rights obligations, he said.
