Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Migration Amendment (Maintaining the Good Order of Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2015. Our government is committed to ensuring that Australia has a strong and humane border protection policy. Under the coalition, the number of boat arrivals in this country has decreased drastically. This has saved the lives of asylum seekers who would have otherwise travelled in leaky vessels and put themselves at risk.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has a duty to ensure that Australia's immigration detention centres are safe and secure. This is a part of our legal obligations under domestic and international law. The Migration Amendment (Maintaining the Good Order of Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2015 ensures that personnel who are working in detention facilities have the capacity to provide a safe and secure environment for detainees, for asylum seekers and for the staff who work within those facilities. The bill will provide an authorising officer the power to use reasonable force against any person or thing in order to protect the health—protect the health, Senator Di Natale—and safety of any person in an immigration detention facility. The bill will also provide an authorising officer the power to use such reasonable force against any person or thing in order to maintain the good order, peace and security of an immigration facility. Such powers are necessary in order to ensure that our detention facilities do not become ghettos of violent of crime, where the most vulnerable—for example, women and children—are targeted.

Currently detention centre employees do not have the powers necessary for them to prevent acts of violent crime and civil disturbance in our immigration detention centres. Detention centre employees have had to rely on common law powers for the use of force—powers which are no greater than those provided to ordinary private citizens. This has resulted in uncertainty and fails to provide a clear basis for when reasonable force can be applied. This has had a negative impact on the safety of vulnerable detainees—in particular, women and children. The Moss review, which was conducted in October last year, found that at least three females—one of whom was a minor—had been sexually assaulted whilst in detention. Such crimes can be prevented in the future if detention centre staff are given clear guidelines regarding the instances when they can use reasonable force in order to protect detainees.

The current laws regarding the use of force are insufficient in dealing with widespread instances of civil disturbance in our detention centres. This was made abundantly clear in Villawood Detention Centre riots when detainees commenced rioting and set fire to detention centre facilities, causing up to $9 million worth of damage to infrastructure. Fire-fighter and emergency services personnel who assisted at the scene were pelted with roof tiles and stones. The risk that this posed to the safety of the detention centre staff, emergency services personnel and detainees is unacceptable and not consistent with the government's aim to provide a safe and secure environment for detention centre detainees and, indeed, the staff who work within the facilities. Such an event could have been prevented had the detention centre staff been given a clear set of guidelines, backed by legislation, regarding the use of reasonable force to prevent harm to themselves and other detainees.

Greens Senator Hanson-Young has frequently made comments regarding incidents of self-harm by detainees whilst in detention. She claims that the solution to the problem is to further strip detention centre staff of their ability to intervene by using reasonable force to prevent harm to detainees to whom they have a duty of care. This is a short-sighted and illogical approach to protecting detainees. Just as teachers and nurses have a duty of care to intervene to prevent harm to their patients and their students, detention centre staff also have this duty of care. In order for them to carry out this duty of care, they need to have a clear set of guidelines, regardless of incidents, in which they can use force to prevent harm to detainees and themselves.

The current laws are insufficient to provide a solid basis for when force should be used. Only guidelines set out by legislation will be sufficient to ensure that detention centre staff are able to protect themselves, their co-workers and others. It would be reckless for the Senate not to grant such common-sense measures for detention staff, especially if it is necessary to protect the health and safety of detainees and ensure the safety and security of our detention centres.

Many senators have come into the chamber over recent days to discuss this bill. The amendments have come about as a result of two independent reviews conducted into specific incidents—

Debate interrupted.