Active pedophile, absent ministers in High Court ruling fallout

A freed child-sex offender has been charged with three counts of having contact with a juvenile, as Labor’s preventative detention regime clears the Senate.

Penny Wong argued in the Senate on Tuesday that Labor had inherited laws which the High Court had now ruled were unconstitutional and was working to fix them. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A child-sex offender released into the community by a landmark High Court ruling has been charged with three counts of having contact with a juvenile and using Instagram, TikTok and a live chat facility in breach of his reporting obligations, as Labor’s preventative detention regime cleared the Senate.

The preventative detention laws are now expected to pass the parliament by Thursday after the government agreed to a Coalition motion to bring forward a vote on the legislation following revelations a third detainee released into the community had been arrested in the southeast of Melbourne. Emran Dad, 33, the ex-ringleader of a child exploitation group that preyed on children in state care, appeared in Dandenong Magistrates Court on Tuesday on nine charges that included making contact with a child without a reasonable excuse.

A police spokesman said Dad had been charged with breaching his reporting obligations as a registered sex offender. He appeared in court in white forensic clothes, with his lawyer alluding to mental health issues. He made no application for bail.

Police have charged Dad with three counts this year of making contact with a child, although it is not clear whether there was more than one child or if it was the same juvenile. He was also charged with trespass, using Instagram, TikTok and a mobile phone without permission as well as the online chat service Bigo.

Anthony Albanese, Home ­Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles have not made public ­appearances to address the arrests of the three former detainees.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil arrive for Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan called on the Prime Minister to publicly address the High Court’s landmark “NZYQ” decision and assure the community it would be safe over Christmas. He described the latest developments as “deeply, deeply concerning”.

Peter Dutton, who has called for Mr Albanese to sack Ms O’Neil and Mr Giles, told 2GB radio the government had left the High Court with no other option but to release the individual known as “NZYQ” after it conceded at the end of May it could not find a resettlement country for the stateless Rohingya man who raped a 10-year-old boy.

A government spokesman told The Australian the Senate had voted to “pass the government’s bill to implement a preventative detention regime and add new criminal offences”. “We look forward to the opposition’s full support for the swift passage of this legislation through the House.”

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash told The Australian the outcome in the Senate with the passage of the government’s preventative detention regime showed that the opposition had “taken control”.

“Peter Dutton and the opposition have called for a preventative detention regime to be put in place for almost a month since the government began releasing detainees after the NZYQ High Court Case,” Senator Cash said.

“The opposition voted for all government amendments and the overall bill. The bill was only debated and passed after the opposition moved a motion in the Senate after question time to bring it on.

“The motion time limited the debate so that it could be passed Tuesday. The bill will now return to the House of Representatives.”

Senator Cash said the government voted against the opposition’s only amendment which was aimed at making the reason for the release of each former detainee transparent to the public.

“The opposition took action to bring on the bill after the startling revelations that three detainees had been arrested and charged with various serious offences,” she said. “The government made no attempt to bring on their own bill, so the opposition decided to act.”

Dad will be held in custody until his next appearance scheduled for December 14, with his ­arrest following those of two other former detainees released as a ­result of the High Court’s NZYQ decision.

They include 65-year-old ­Aliyawar Yawari, who faces two counts of indecently assaulting a woman in an Adelaide motel on Saturday night and 45-year-old Mohammed Ali Nadari who did not turn up to Parramatta Local Court on Monday where he was found guilty in absentia and fined $300 after being arrested for drug possession in Merrylands on Saturday afternoon.

“It demands that the Prime Minister step up,” Mr Tehan told The Australian. “He has to take leadership of this issue.”

“He has to have it as the number one agenda item at national cabinet on Wednesday and he has to reassure the Australian people that he will keep them safe over Christmas.”

Government Senate Leader Penny Wong argued on Tuesday that Labor had inherited laws which the High Court had now ruled were unconstitutional and was working to fix them by proposing a preventative detention regime. The government argues that detainees were released into the community because Mr Dutton failed to resettle them when he was the relevant minister.

A Coalition amendment forcing the government to prepare a statement of reasons for each detainee released into the community — including their conviction history – was opposed by Labor and the Greens. It was defeated by 30 votes to 24.

Anticipating the defeat, opposition sources said the final ­Coalition position on the government’s legislation would not be determined until Thursday morning when a joint party room meeting is scheduled to meet.

Labor frontbench senator Murray Watt said the government opposed the Coalition amendments because releasing extra information about the detainees could jeopardise future efforts to resettle them.

“There have been a number of occasions over the last few days where, in their desperate desire to score political points, the opposition have either wilfully ignored the High Court Judgement or failed to understand it,” Senator Watt said. “And that is exactly the problem that got us where we are.”

Dad, who was jailed for having sex with an underage girl more than a decade ago and procuring her for sex with another man, was later found guilty of abusing a teen in state care.

Reports at the time said Dad met a 13-year-old girl in Melbourne’s southeast in 2016, continuing his pattern of offending.

Senator Cash told the Senate that a court was ­previously told that Dad had once traded a packet of cigarettes as payment for sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Previously, in 2012, Dad was convicted of inducing a child to engage in sex work, two counts of penetrating a child under 16 and committing an indecent act with a child under 16.

The County Court of Victoria heard in 2012 that Dad took a young girl shopping on her 15th birthday and bought her any gift she wanted in exchange for sex and later told police he didn’t know the law prohibited him from having sex with girls aged under 16 because such laws did not exist in his homeland of Afghanistan.

The Coalition on Tuesday also questioned whether Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus had undermined the government’s position in the NZYQ High Court case by allowing the Australian Human Rights Commission to intervene and make the case against indefinite detention.

On May 22, AHRC president Rosalind Croucher wrote to Mr Dreyfus and requested his approval to “enable the commission to make submissions to the High Court and to appear at the hearing of this proceeding” using in-house lawyers and external counsel.

Mr Dreyfus wrote to Professor Croucher on June 5 saying he had approved the request on the condition the AHRC make clear its submissions were not made on behalf of the Commonwealth.

Senator Cash said it was clear the AHRC would be “arguing against the government’s case. But, for some reason, he (Mr Dreyfus) decided to personally approve the AHRC intervention.”

“It is completely inexplicable,” she said.

Mr Dreyfus on Tuesday strongly rejected the claim being made by the Coalition that only the individual referred to as “NZYQ” could have been released following the High Court’s decision, warning this would have exposed the commonwealth to liability for false imprisonment.

“The court set a new limit on the parliament’s power to make laws requiring or authorising the detention of any non-citizen who is relevantly in the same position as the plaintiff,” he said. “As a result of the High Court’s decision, the continued detention of any NZYQ-affected person would be unlawful.”

“The government cannot and would not ask, let alone direct, Commonwealth officials to break the law.”