Judges to rule on preventative detention for violent and sex predator non-citizens

Criminals released from immigration detention will be re-detained if a judge decides there is a high probability they will commit serious violence or sexual offences, under proposed new preventative detention laws.

Immigration and Citizenship Minister Andrew Giles. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Criminals released from immigration detention after a High Court ruling will be re-detained if a judge decides there is a high probability they will commit serious violence or sexual offences, under proposed new preventative detention laws.

The Albanese government has challenged the opposition to pass its amended legislation before parliament rises for the year on Thursday, arguing it delivers what the Coalition demanded – a new regime based on the existing High Risk Terrorism Offenders scheme.

The preventative detention amendment follows weeks of chaos for the government, which released 145 immigration detainees including murderers, rapists and pedophiles, after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful.

The amended bill, due to be introduced in the Senate on Wednesday, would allow stateless criminals and others who cannot be deported to be re-detained if a Supreme Court judge is satisfied there is “a high degree of probability that the person poses an unacceptable risk of committing a serious violent or sexual offence”.

The proposed new community safety laws would allow a judge to order ongoing detention for periods of up to three years, subject to annual reviews by the Immigration Minister.

“The government’s preventative detention and community safety order regime is closely modelled on the Coalition’s High Risk Terrorist Offender scheme,” a government spokeswoman said.

“If the Coalition thought this model was appropriate to deal with terrorist threats to our country, they must support this model for serious violent and sexual offenders, and work with the government to get this bill through the parliament urgently.”

The House of Representatives will sit on Thursday, offering the last scheduled opportunity for the bill to pass that chamber this year.

The amendment is the latest Labor capitulation to the Coalition following the High Court’s ruling, after it earlier agreed to mandatory curfews and electronic monitoring of released detainees, new rules barring them from going near children, and mandatory minimum sentences for those who breached the laws.

The government will also seek to pass a fix for Peter Dutton’s laws to strip dual-nationality terrorists of their Australian citizenship, after the High Court found they were invalid.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the Coalition was yet to see the proposed preventative detention legislation, calling for the government to consult on the bill rather than introducing it on a “take it or leave it” basis.

“Our real worry with this preventative detention regime is, once again, going to be rushed and they’re not going to give us enough time to fix it,” he said. “We want it to apply as broadly as it possibly can. And obviously, we would hope that the government would share their legal advice with us. So we can make it as fast and as tough as possible.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan speaking at Parliament House last week about the government’s response to the High Court’s decision. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Mr Tehan said the opposition also wanted the government to restart dialogue with other countries about taking the detainees.

The government attacked Mr Dutton last week as a “protector of pedophiles” after the Coalition opposed its control measures for released detainees because they didn’t include preventative detention, and it wanted to see the High Court’s full verdict first on the case of a detainee dubbed “NZYQ”.

The High Court’s reasons, released a day later, said some dangerous non-citizens released into the community could be subject to ongoing detention.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the ABC the party would not “play footsies” with Labor on its proposed legislation, which she branded as “kneejerk hysteria policymaking”. She said the government’s management of the fallout from the High Court’s ruling overturning indefinite detention had been “appalling”.

“This is all about making refugees and migrants a group in our community that people are afraid of,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

However, she declined to say whether the Greens would oppose the bill, saying the party wouldn’t do anything that undermined the High Court’s decision.