Crime-time drama stars ex-detainees

A quarter of the foreign offenders freed under the High Court’s NZYQ ruling have been charged with a crime since their release, new figures reveal, piling pressure on Tony Burke to ask the courts immediately to put released criminals back into detention.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A quarter of the foreign offenders freed under the High Court’s NZYQ ruling have been charged with a crime since their release, new figures reveal, piling pressure on Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to ask the courts immediately to put released criminals back into detention.

The Coalition demand for Mr Burke to take tougher action against released detainees could face roadblocks from leading members of the judiciary, with a Supreme Court judge condemning Labor’s attempts to jail ­curfew-breaching detainees as “ridiculously harsh”.

As Mr Burke warns he will not have any “sympathy” for criminal non-citizens, The Australian can reveal 39 out of the 159 former ­detainees have been hit with criminal charges since the landmark November decision triggered their release.

The figures, which include 10 charges for breaching ankle monitoring or curfew conditions imposed by their visa and 29 for state-based offences, have prompted the Coalition to demand that Mr Burke use preventive detention measures to lock up foreigners who pose an “unacceptable risk” on what is only his second full day in the troubled home affairs and immigration portfolios.

In a sign of the dual pressures Mr Burke is set to face on the issue, Victorian Supreme Court judge Michael Croucher criticised laws imposing a minimum one-year jail term for disobeying the curfew requirements for the NZYQ cohort.

Justice Croucher granted Sudan-born Abdelmoez Mohamed Elawad bail on Monday after the serial offender, who has racked up more than 208 charges including 18 for weapons possession, over his lifetime, was charged with breaching his curfew. The judge questioned what the “world (has) come to”.

“You can’t seriously call this a serious offence, simply breaching a curfew – notwithstanding the risk that he may be thought to pose by some board, surely,” Justice Croucher told the court on Monday.

“My guess is that any reasonably informed member of the public, whatever views they had about immigration detention or the like, would say that a person that breaches his curfew should not be in jail for merely breaching his curfew.”

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson urged Mr Burke to use the preventive-detention regime, based on legislation for terrorists, to jail foreigners who posed a risk to the community.

Senator Paterson said figures revealing that, as of May 27, a quarter of the NZYQ cohort had reoffended underscored Labor’s failure in responding to the ­detainee crisis.

The powers under the ­preventive-detention legislation passed seven months before ­Anthony Albanese’s weekend ­reshuffle have not been used to date, despite former immigration minister Andrew Giles revealing that six applications to use the powers were being reviewed by experts and 26 were in the ­“advanced stage of preparation” in May.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Criminal non-citizen detainees are on a serious crime spree, with 39 of them charged with offences since they were released by the Albanese government,” Senator Paterson told The Australian.

“And yet seven months on, Labor still hasn’t used the ­preventive-detention powers the parliament gave them to protect the community, despite Andrew Giles promising in May 6 ­applications were nearly ready and a further 26 were close.

“Tony Burke must get his skates on and get these high-risk offenders off the streets before they commit more crimes against innocent Australians.”

On Tuesday, Mr Burke vowed he would leave “no stone unturned” in his efforts to ensure community safety and address the immigration detainee issue, while leaving the door open to introducing new legislation to tackle the issue. “I think it’s too early to be able to give anything definitive on that,” he told ABC radio.

“Suffice to say, I’ve already asked those questions and started that conversation with the department and had a look at it, and I’m very mindful that this is a highly litigated area … This is a policy area that never stands still. It’s always litigated.

“There’s always attempts to move boundaries, and what you have to make sure is that your ­resolve is completely clear. And that’s probably at this stage, the best I can offer you.”

High Court in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Giles and former home ­affairs minister Clare O’Neil introduced controversial legislation that would jail non-citizens who refused to co-operate with ­efforts to deport them in the lead-up to another pivotal High Court challenge to indefinite detention, but the bill has fallen off the legislative agenda since the commonwealth won the case in April. A case centred around an Eritrean man, known as YBFZ, who is ­arguing his visa conditions are unconstitutional, will be heard by the High Court on Tuesday.

Mr Burke acknowledged the slew of legal challenges before the courts, which threaten to undercut the government’s powers to impose visa conditions and detain non-citizens who cannot be removed from Australia. He promised to implement the “full belts and braces of everything that’s possible to maximise our legal position”.

“For people who have come on visas, and while they are on visas, you’re a guest in the country,” he said. “When you’re on a visa, (and) you have committed violent acts of crime. Those individuals are not a priority. They’re not people I have sympathy for, and they’re people where no stone will be left unturned.”

The latest Community Protection Board report shows the ­cohort now being monitored by the law-enforcement body has grown to 178 non-citizens, with 103 of the group being required to wear ankle monitors and 99 subject to curfew conditions.

Mr Burke rejected Senator Paterson’s criticism that he would not ensure sufficient security checks for Palestinians fleeing Gaza because of the political ­pressure the southwest Sydney MP was under from his multi­cultural seat of Watson and the Muslim Votes Matter group, dismissing the concerns as an “idiotic statement”.

The number of arrivals fleeing the Israel-Hamas war has soared, with 507 Palestinians in Australia on bridging visas and 698 on visitor visas, with 119 lodging protection applications in May.

“The issue of making sure that you deal with security checks is fundamental – fundamental – to the immigration program,” Mr Burke said.

“I have never hesitated to reject visas or to cancel visas, absolutely never hesitated.”