High Court to hand down reasons for detention decision
The High Court will today release the reasons behind why it ruled indefinite immigration detention unlawful.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Earlier this month, the High Court did rule that indefinite detention in immigration detention
00:06 was unlawful.
00:07 And this all came about because a Rohingya man who had served a sentence for child sex
00:12 offences - he'd raped a young child - after he'd served his sentence, he remained in immigration
00:18 detention and that was because he couldn't be deported.
00:21 So he was arguing that remaining in immigration detention for years on end was unlawful.
00:27 And the High Court did rule that that was the case.
00:31 As a result, we've seen 141 people released from immigration detention.
00:36 Some of them committed minor offences, but others have been committed of murder, rape
00:42 and child sex offences.
00:43 And while they've all completed their sentence, they then remained behind bars essentially
00:48 until now.
00:50 The Government's initial reaction to the High Court ruling was that it introduced new laws
00:54 to monitor this cohort while they're in the community.
00:57 So things like ankle monitoring bracelets, curfews, not allowing people near schools
01:02 or to work with children.
01:04 And they've argued that they can't do any more than that until they see the reasons
01:08 from the High Court in terms of why the High Court made this decision.
01:13 That will all be made very clear this afternoon when the High Court hands down its ruling.
01:17 And ahead of this, the Opposition has been today suggesting the Government - one of the
01:22 measures they could introduce - is preventative detention orders.
01:26 These are currently used for people convicted of terrorism offences to keep them behind
01:31 bars longer than their sentence.
01:34 Let's take a listen to the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Patterson.
01:38 I think the Government should investigate all lawful options to protect the community.
01:43 And we know that both preventative and continuing detention orders are a well-accepted area
01:47 of law when it comes to high-risk terrorist offenders based on the risk that they pose
01:50 to the community.
01:51 And the same philosophy could and should be applied here.
01:54 Some of these people pose a very serious risk to the community.
01:56 They could re-offend and they should be locked away from the community on the same basis.
02:01 Stephanie of the measures that the Government introduced following the High Court ruling,
02:04 have they all been implemented?
02:06 Well, let's talk specifically, Ros, about the ankle bracelets, those monitoring devices
02:12 that are put on this cohort.
02:14 It's 141 people that have been released.
02:16 The legislation stated that it would be put on all people unless the Minister was satisfied
02:21 the holder didn't pose a risk to the community.
02:24 Of the 141, we know that three are not required to wear ankle monitoring bracelets.
02:30 But despite repeated requests, the Government won't explain why those three people have
02:35 been essentially told they don't have to wear these bracelets.
02:39 Putting that to one side as well, Ros, of the 138 that are required to wear the bracelets,
02:44 we have learnt that six of them still don't have them on yet.
02:47 Border Forces is working to make that happen.
02:50 Yesterday, we were told that four hadn't really been in touch with police properly.
02:55 One of them is still not engaging with police.
02:59 So while this measure was introduced the other week, it's an ongoing process to get this
03:04 part completed.
03:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]