‘Radio silence’: Pressure on Giles continues with Labor’s deportation bill lost at sea

The Albanese government is backing away from a once-urgent bill to jail foreigners who resist deportation when parliament resumes next week, as the Coalition challenges Labor to front up over the future of the controversial legislation.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ deportation bill has been left off the draft schedule for the Senate next week after it was inexplicably removed from the parliamentary program more than a month ago, days after the government fended off a High Court challenge over the release of detainees.

Andrew Giles’ controversial deportation bill is on the backburner.Credit: Joe Armao

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan described the absence of the legislation from next week’s slate as “more gross incompetence” from Giles, whose performance has been criticised after being mired in controversies over the deportation of foreign criminals and the fallout from a legal ruling triggering the release of 160 immigration detainees.

“He said at the time this was a matter of national urgency, yet that urgency has disappeared before our eyes. Andrew Giles needs to explain why this is all of a sudden not urgent, why has the importance of this issue disappeared?” Tehan said.

The bill threatens up to five years’ jail for non-citizens refusing to go back to their countries and bans entire nationalities from visiting Australia if their governments won’t accept citizens being returned against their will.

It was introduced before a High Court freedom bid by an Iranian detainee who the government said was being lawfully held and could be deported if he co-operated with efforts to remove him.

The government denied the two were directly linked, although conceded the measures would be helpful should the government lose the case.

Giles tried to ram it through both houses of parliament within two days in March. It was blocked by the Senate and referred to a parliamentary inquiry, where it was criticised by multicultural communities, the human rights watchdog, the ombudsman and former immigration officials.

Despite this, Labor senators proposed no changes to the bill. The Coalition demanded a raft of changes to soften the toughest conditions of the bill.

Among a laundry list of recommendations, the Coalition wants the minister to consider the best interests of children when forcing anyone to co-operate with moves to deport them; give those affected time to seek legal advice; consider the impact on multicultural communities when banning nationalities from Australia; and broaden exemptions to allow extended family members of dual nationals to visit Australia.

On May 10, Albanese urged the Senate to “get on with it” and pass the bill. Hours later, the government won the High Court case, allowing it to continue to detain the Iranian man and 199 others in similar circumstances.

A spokesperson for Giles said the Senate committee recommended parliament pass the bill, making no reference to the numerous dissenting reports. “The government calls on the Coalition to commit to supporting the legislation,” the spokesperson said, indicating Labor was hesitant to make any concessions, despite negotiations with the Coalition being its only avenue for success.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Coalition had made suggestions to improve the bill “and stands ready to work with the government to pass it, but there’s been nothing but radio silence for months”.

“If they are quietly shelving the bill they should have the courage and decency to admit it,” he said.

Greens immigration spokesman David Shoebridge said it was a bill “with no friends outside the Labor Party, and no merit wherever you look, which is the best explanation for the sudden lack of urgency”.

“Labor has spent the last year burning every bridge it can with diaspora communities. Given that, pulling this bill might be an indication that they see the extent of the damage and are trying to limit it,” he said.

Last month it was revealed a tribunal gave serious foreign criminals with ties to Australia a second chance to stay in the country due to a directive issued by Giles last year, which he was forced to rework.

Soon after, he made the sensational claim drones were being used to monitor former detainees in the community, which he walked back, after it was revealed to be false.

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