Fallout from the indefinite detention ruling: Here's what you need to know

KEY POINTS:

The fallout from the High Court’s indefinite detention ruling is continuing at pace.
The government will attempt to pass legislation granting authorities extra powers next week.
More than 140 detainees have been released in the weeks since the ruling.

Calls for resignation, accusations of protecting paedophiles. It was a bruising week in parliament.

The fallout from last month’s High Court ruling, which overturned two decades of precedent by declaring indefinite detention illegal, is continuing at pace.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton demanded Immigration Minister Andrew Giles step down on Thursday, for a ruling that has seen more than 140 detainees released into the community.

Labor frontbenchers reacted by accusing Dutton variously of being a “protector of pedophiles” and “playing politics” with the safety of children.

Dutton told Channel Nine’s Today Show on Friday that those comments had “crossed the line”, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of using his ministers as attack dogs.

“He didn’t have the guts to make the comments himself. I would have thought if he is man enough he will apologise. I am not expecting one. That is up to him,” Dutton said.

So what’s the government trying to do, why is the Coalition stalling, and who has been released onto our streets?

Here’s what you need to know.

What’s the political situation?

Labor will attempt to ram stronger rules through parliament next week.

It initially scrambled to pass emergency laws — eventually backed by the Coalition after amendments — which put the newly released detainees under curfew between 10pm and 6am.

Other measures include forcing released detainees to wear tracking bracelets on their ankles and imposing heavy criminal sanctions for breaches of their conditions, such as approaching schools or childcare centres.

Peter Dutton stands at one of the House of Representatives' despatch boxes in question time.

Peter Dutton has attacked Labor over the development in question time. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

But after the High Court revealed its , Labor also wants extra powers to ensure the worst offenders can be placed behind bars again.

Under that plan, which is likely to be put to parliament on Wednesday, they could be re-detained if deportation became a “feasible option” or if there was another statutory basis for their detention.

The new laws would be implemented in the criminal code. That might sound technical, but it’s important; administrative indefinite detention is no longer legal.

The Coalition appears open to the idea.

Clare O'Neil, wearing a red jacket over a white shirt, points as she speaks in question time.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has accused Peter Dutton of “playing politics” with the safety of children. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

But this week, it rejected Labor’s attempts to strengthen punishments for breaching conditions, arguing they didn’t go far enough.

That prompted Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil to lash Dutton in Parliament on Thursday.

“Instead of supporting Labor’s attempts to criminalise paedophiles … the leader of the opposition came in here and played politics instead,” she said.

Who has been released?

On Thursday, the federal court ordered the immediate release of Iranian asylum seeker Ned Kelly Emeralds.

Emeralds, who arrived in Australia by boat a decade ago, became the 142nd detainee to be released since the precedent was overturned. He has never been convicted of a crime or had his visa cancelled.

But other released detainees have been convicted of serious offences.

Sirul Azhar Umar was found guilty of murdering a Mongolian national in 2006. Source: Supplied

A former Malaysian prime ministerial bodyguard, Sirual Azhar Umar, has also been released after having been convicted of a politically motivated 2006 murder of a Mongolian national.

Umar, who has been in detention for nearly a decade, cannot be deported to Malaysia because he faces the death penalty there, and is unable to receive a pardon because he continues to maintain his innocence.

He is currently wearing an ankle monitor.

Another murderer, Tony Kellisar, has also reportedly been released 25 years after he was convicted of strangling his wife.

At least three convicted killers have been released, alongside several sex offenders.

A man with a shaved head wearing a blue sweatshirt under a gray jacket walks in the street.

Former bikie Sam Ibrahim, who has also been released, says his “nightmare” is over. Source: AAP / Britta Campion

Former bikie Sam Ibrahim has also been released, after a three-year stint in WA detention.

Ibrahim, who has lived in Australia since the 1970s, was thrown into detention after serving a nine-year jail sentence for gun dealing. The government tried to deport him to Lebanon, arguing he had never become an Australian citizen.

Ibrahim, the brother of Kings Cross nightclub boss John Ibrahim, told the Daily Telegraph “this nightmare is finished” as he returned to Sydney.

So far, details relating to other released detainees are scant.

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