SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian government on Wednesday urged the opposition to support legislation that would allow authorities to lock up some former immigration detainees who were released after a landmark ruling by the country’s top court.
Australia’s High Court ruled last month that several offenders, including people serving time in jail for child sexual offences, were being unlawfully detained ,as there was no real prospect that they could be removed from Australia.
The verdict overturned an court ruling from about 20 years ago that said indefinite immigration detention was lawful as long as the government intended to remove the person from Australia eventually.
The federal government is scrambling to pass the law as the opposition coalition and government lawmakers continued to clash over the ramifications of the high court ruling.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says all parts of the bill, which is in the upper house now, had been carefully developed to withstand any constitutional challenge.
“The government believes it has got the balance right, ensuring that we have the toughest possible laws within the constitutional limits set by the high court,” Dreyfus said during a media briefing.
The proposed law will allow the government to refer non-citizens freed from immigration detention to judges to decide whether they pose a risk to the community.
Three of the about 150 people who were freed since the court ruling have been charged with fresh offences, media have reported.
Dreyfus said the government would reject amendments to the bill because they risk exposing it to further challenges in the high court.
Laws allowing indefinite detention of asylum seekers have shaped Australia’s border politics for the last two decades, as the government routinely held people for prolonged periods of time – some for over a decade.
(Reporting by Renju Jose and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Gerry Doyle)
