Well, let’s have a look at federal politics. I touched on this yesterday that Immigration Minister Tony Burke has basically given up on these hardened criminals that have been released from detention as part of that NZYQ high court case, basically saying, look, it’s too hard. We’ve tried a few things. Can’t work out how to do it. We’re just going to give up now. It’s been described as an admission of a catastrophic failure by the Albanese Government. I don’t think there’s any way to put it. The Shadow Minister for Immigration, Paul Scarr, joins us. Paul, good morning.
Senator Scarr
Good to be with you.
Stephen Cenatiempo
What are the options here, given that this government has tried various legal remedies. How do you manage this?
Senator Scarr
Well, one of the options has got to be to actually look at the piece of legislation that was passed by the Australian Parliament in response to the NZYQ case. So we have this shocking situation where the government, when that legislation was passed, and it was the government’s legislation. They drafted the legislation, they presented it to the Australian Parliament. They said it provided four layers of protection to the Australian community, and one of those layers of protection, a key area of protection was the ability of the government to apply for preventative detention orders. For about 16 months, the Coalition have been asking the department, when are you going to make the first application? And then we had this stunning admission from the minister on Sunday that, well, the legislative thresholds too too high. It’s too hard. It just doesn’t work in practice. So what I say is that the government needs to look carefully at the legislation, work constructively with the opposition, and come up with a way in which we can amend the legislation and make it work. The number one priority of any government is to keep the community safe.
Stephen Cenatiempo
So how many of these people are still in the community? Originally, it was 335, but a number of them have been charged with additional crimes since they’ve been out, so I imagine some of those would be on remand.
Senator Scarr
Well, that’s right, we don’t have the latest up to date figures, but you’re absolutely right. Dozens of members of this cohort have been charged with offenses under the Immigration Act and under other state legislation. So some will be in remand. Some are still in the community. Some are under electronic surveillance. Some are not under electronic surveillance. So it’s a deeply concerning issue,
Stephen Cenatiempo
The thing we need to point out this, it would come as no surprise that a lot of these people have been re arrested, because we are talking about people who had previously been convicted of serious crimes. We’re not talking about your average refugee or immigrant here.
Senator Scarr
Oh, absolutely. And that should that’s a really important point to emphasize. We’re talking about a small, small cohort of 335 people. That’s the last figure we received. The vast majority of them have been convicted of serious crimes. We’re talking about murder, we’re talking about attempted murder. We’re talking about violent crimes, sexual offenses, and they posed such a risk to the community that the government had taken the position that they should be in detention. So it’s this small cohort of people we’re talking about, and as you say, the vast majority of whom have committed serious crimes and are non citizens, and they would be returned to their country of origin, except for the fact, for various reasons, that’s not practical at this point in time.
Stephen Cenatiempo
But even some of the measures that the government said they were going to put in place, they haven’t done, things like electronic monitoring, apparently, has been used very, very sparingly,
Senator Scarr
Exactly. So electronic monitoring is only being used in relation to a minority of this cohort of 335, a minority of them. And also, we had the situation last year where the Parliament had to introduce further amendments to legislation because the government didn’t get the electronic monitoring provisions right. So we had to amend the legislation. If we did it, then why don’t we do it now? Why don’t we do it now? Why don’t we look at how to amend the legislation now in order to protect the community.
Stephen Cenatiempo
But I think the key here is, is that all governments make mistakes from time to time, but for the Minister to come out and basically say this week, it’s all too hard, so we’re not going to bother anymore. It’s just extraordinary.
Senator Scarr
It is extraordinary, and you’re absolutely right. It’s one thing to find there’s a weakness in the legislation, whatever it is, but it’s another thing to throw your hands in the air and say, it’s just too hard to fix. The opposition stands ready, willing and able to work with the government constructively to fix the legislation so it works for the Australian community.
Stephen Cenatiempo
Unfortunately, we’re still waiting about 20 days before the opportunity for that to happen will arise, Paul. I appreciate your time this morning.
Senator Scarr
Thanks very much.
