Labor accuses Dutton for protecting pedophiles

Labor said it would introduce a preventative detention regime to parliament next week, as it sought to blame Peter Dutton for the NZYQ High Court case

Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil.

Labor has accused Peter Dutton of voting to protect pedophiles over children and failing to deport the child rapist at the centre of the landmark NZYQ High Court case while he was in office, as the government attempts to regain the political momentum in the final sitting fortnight of the year.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on Wednesday vowed to introduce a “robust preventative detention and community safety order regime” into the parliament next week, effectively endorsing the position of the Coalition which had called for such a scheme.

However, the slated timing of the bill’s introduction means next Thursday December 7 is the earliest point at which the legislation can be passed as it is the only day next week when both houses are due to sit together.

Ms O’Neil said on Wednesday that “we will not rise as a parliament until we have a preventative detention regime in place” – raising the prospect the government could extend the sitting period if required.

One option is for the government to introduce its new preventative detention regime into the Senate early next week, before the Lower House is scheduled to sit on Thursday.

It was also revealed late on Wednesday that the former detainee who went missing after being released from indefinite detention following the NZYQ High Court case had been found and was “complying with stringent visa conditions.”

The former detainee was located somewhere in Victoria and was fitted with an electronic monitoring device around his ankle.

Peter Dutton was accused of voting to protect paedophiles over children by Ms Gallagher.

The outcome followed a heated question time in which Anthony Albanese could not provide an update on the missing individual’s status despite Mr Dutton asking what risk he posed to the Australian public and if he could be brought back into custody as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister instead argued that Mr Dutton had failed to deport the individual known as NZYQ when he was in government – an outcome that would have prevented the release of the 141 former detainees into the community earlier this month.

“If NZYQ had been deported instead of being granted permission to apply for a visa by the person who was the minister at the time – the Leader of the Opposition – none of this would have occurred,” the Prime Minister said.

Ms O’Neil also took aim at the Coalition for opposing its legislation on Monday afternoon making it a criminal offence for recently released detainees to go within 200 metres of a school, daycare or child care centre.

“We saw on Monday the Opposition, led by the Leader of the Opposition, come into the parliament and vote to protect pedophiles over children,” she said.

Labor also singled out for criticism Liberal Senator Dean Smith who wrote twice to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles – in September 2022 and February 2023 – asking for an individual detained on Christmas Island awaiting deportation to be released and “instead serve a program of community detention.”

In his September 2022 letter, Senator Smith said the individual was “convicted in 2015 for sexual penetration with a girl over the age of 13 and under the age of 16, including on a consensual and non-consensual level.”

Senator Smith he did not dispute nor condone the “seriousness of the crimes” that had been committed but asked for the individual to be transferred “from Christmas Island to a program of community detention.”

Mr Giles said he did not let the individual out, arguing that community safety was the “utmost priority of this side of the chamber.”

The government also introduced legislation on Wednesday that would allow a court to strip an individual’s Australian citizenship if they were convicted of a serious crime, ranging from terrorism to espionage.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the Coalition was “supportive of the concept of the bill.”

“We agree that it should be extended to espionage and foreign interference as it is. And we agree it needs to be dealt with because the High Court has prevented a minister from stripping a citizenship from someone,” he told the ABC. “But we are concerned on the draft that we’ve seen so far that it does not apply to the historic terrorism caseload in this country, where as with the terrorist that we have, including Benbrika, who was the test case for this decision by the High Court.”