Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm sorry; I'm just looking for a signal from the other side as to what the agreement was. It was probably written down in a speech that was not memorable. Given the serious consequences associated with the Federal Court judgement, the government has responded decisively by appealing the judgement in the High Court. So we have gone into the courts to talk to the people. Secondly, we have introduced this bill to restore section 197C to its intended purpose. This bill was introduced last sitting week and the government intends to pass it this week, so there is some urgency about the bill.

As I said, we have a detention regime, but this bill is not designed to create a new framework for immigration detention. We already have one. The amendments in this bill are designed to ensure that detainees are not required to be removed in breach of Australia's international protection obligations. This is a humanitarian objective which should not, and has not, become a political football. We want to make sure that courts won't order the government to send people back to places where they are expected to face persecution, torture or death.

This may prolong the detention of a handful of serious criminals and people of national security concern. In some cases they are not the best of people, but that's for others to judge, not me. We're not talking here about the general run of the public; we're talking about difficult cases. They are in detention because both Labor and coalition governments have reviewed their cases and truly agonised over the details. Decision-makers have known that an adverse decision would carry a risk of long-term detention, but have decided that the risk to the community is so high that these people cannot be unleashed into the community. It is really difficult for governments to enter into this space. Each case is routinely reviewed by the Department of Home Affairs and subject to independent oversight by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The government amendments to this CIOR bill will require review of the clarifying international obligations for removal within 24 months. The second one will insert AAT merits review rights for determination that a person who previously engaged protection obligations no longer engages those obligations.

I will leave it there at this stage. The bill provides greater transparency in relation to the exercise of ministerial power. We are offering greater transparency. We are offering a review in 22 months. We are offering review rights for determinations that a person who previously engaged protection obligations no longer engages those obligations. So there are three overriders here that are protections for the persons involved. At the same time, the government needs to protect the nation that we serve and have an obligation to the broader community. This establishes the previous intention of government in these matters, to hold the intention of the parliament to be fulfilled in this legislation.

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