Labor strikes deal with Coalition to pass strict new visa conditions for newly released detainees

A senator has called Labor’s last-minute visa law changes an “extraordinary attack” on democracy.

New laws imposing mandatory curfews and electronic monitoring on people released from immigration detention have passed parliament.

Labor agreed to a raft of Coalition changes to last-minute legislation, which was rushed through on Thursday in response to the High Court’s decision that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said the haste that the legislation was rushed through was “astounding” and called the move “an extraordinary attack” on the processes of democracy.

“If somebody is dangerous and needs to be locked up that should be a matter for the courts, not a matter for the minister,” Senator Hanson-Young told RN on Friday.

“Peter Dutton has been fearmongering about this all week and the Labor Party couldn’t hold their nerve.”

The High Court would not be happy with the government’s last-minute move, Senator Hansen-Young said. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire.

Under the changes, migrants with criminal records will be subjected to mandatory monitoring and curfews rather than having their conditions subject to ministerial discretion. They face up to five years in jail for every day they are found to be in breach of their visa conditions.

Detainees convicted of serious crimes will be banned from working with children, going within 150m of a school or childcare facility or contacting their victims or their family members.

Opposition leader Dutton said if he were in power every person released from indefinite detention would be re-detained.

He raised concerns of the case of former Malaysian bodyguard Sirul Azhar Umar, who was sentenced over the politically charged murder of a pregnant woman and released under the high court’s decision.

“If I was writing the government’s policy these people would be back in detention. We’re talking about some pretty serious criminals,” Mr Dutton told Nine.

“The first and foremost thoughts here are for the victims, one victim, a pregnant woman was murdered and blown up with explosives. Unbelievable.”

Mr Dutton said newly-released migrants should not be out in the community. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire.

All the released migrants previously had their visas cancelled or had been refused visas because of their criminal records or other evidence of poor character.

Under constitutional law, the government can no longer detain people if there is no real prospect that it will become practicable to remove them from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future.

Independent MP Sophie Scamps said the government’s new laws were “really good measures” to uphold community safety.

“These 84 stateless people had to be released into the community and the government has responded very quickly so that we know that these people are being monitored,” she told Today.

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin will appear at a parliamentary hearing called by the Greens on Friday. Picture: Dallas Kilponen/Optus.

Optus fronts Senators

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin will face a Senate grilling on Friday over the telco’s handling of a 14-hour nationwide outage.

Millions of people were impacted after Optus’ network went down last week.

The company is offering free data for compensation, but some businesses have claimed they have lost tens of thousands of dollars as a result of the outage.

Ms Bayer Rosmarin has been placed in the firing line of anger over a lack of communication made to customers during the major blackout.

Ms Hanson-Young, who will chair the inquiry, said it “beggars belief” that the second largest comms company in the nation was so poor at engaging with their customers.

“The glib apologies so far just don’t cut it,” Senator Hanson-Young told ABC.

Friday’s inquiry follows reports speculating that Ms Rosmarin will soon resign.

There’s a hidden side to Richard Marles says Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Deputy PM a ‘pussycat’: Dutton

Sparring with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in Anthony Albanese’s absence has proven to be tough for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

After a heated week of debate in the lower house, Mr Dutton said facing the Defence Minister, who is acting prime minister while Mr Albanese attends an APEC summit in the US, was akin to “going into the lion’s den.”

“He’s a pussycat on the Today show, but he’s a tough negotiator,” the Liberal leader told Nine.

Mr Dutton condemned Mr Albanese’s presence at a trade summit in San Francisco during a media appearance in lieu of a scramble in parliament to address last week’s High Court decision.

“This issue required his attention and there are other issues that required his attention including a national cabinet to deal with anti-Semitism in our country,” Mr Dutton said.