The Coalition has targeted Immigration Minister Andrew Giles over a report that a fifth person released from detention has been arrested in connection with an outstanding warrant.
On Thursday, the Courier Mail reported that a man was arrested in Queensland after it was discovered he had a warrant to return to prison for allegedly breaching his parole conditions before being placed in immigration detention in 2012.
In question time, shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan asked about the reported fifth arrest “in relation to an outstanding return to detention warrant”.
Tehan suggested the man had been released from immigration detention “without any checks being carried out” and asked whether he should have been released.
Giles said he “cannot comment on individual cases” and quoted earlier comments by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton that it was inappropriate to do so when he had been the decision-maker.
Giles said the government had set up Operation Aegis, a joint taskforce between the Federal Police, Border Force and state police, to “share information and enforce visa conditions, steps that have been strengthened by the legislation passed by Parliament late last night. This work will of course continue”.
The man is the fifth person to be released from immigration detention since the High Court’s NZYQ ruling.
At least 148 people have been released as a result of the ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful if the non-citizen cannot be deported.
On Wednesday night, the Parliament passed laws that will allow the Immigration Minister to apply to the State High Court for orders to re-detain the ‘worst offenders’ in the cohort.
Under the preventive detention regime, courts will be able to order non-citizens convicted of serious violent or sexual offences who are ineligible for deportation to be detained for three consecutive years if they are satisfied there is a “high probability” the person poses an “unacceptable risk” of reoffending.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton began question time by calling on the Prime Minister to apologise for ‘failing to prepare for the High Court decision she knew was coming for at least six months’, citing four people who had allegedly reoffended since their release.
The Premier, Anthony Albanese, responded that ‘community safety is our priority and I am very pleased that Parliament has passed stronger laws to keep people safe’.
Albanese said the government had created “four layers of protection”, including preventative detention, community safety orders, electronic monitoring devices and curfews, and “tough visa conditions”.
“Obviously I am sorry for anybody who is a victim of any crime, at any time, against any victim.”
Albanese revealed that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus had apologised for a fiery exchange with a journalist on Wednesday, describing it as an “appropriate” course of action “when our standards aren’t met”.
