Murderer among former detainees to be shifted to Nauru

Violent non-citizen criminals released into the Australian community in the landmark NZYQ High Court case will be transferred to Nauru under a major new deal to offload the members of the unwanted cohort to the small island nation.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke hopes to send away a larger number of the ex-detainees after announcing on Sunday that an initial three, including one murderer, would be sent to Nauru within weeks.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced the deal on Sunday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Labor had said it would pay countries to take some of the 220 people previously in immigration detention, who had broken laws and failed the character test but who could not be resettled in their home nation, in 2023 after the nation’s top court said they could not be held indefinitely.

Labor has since been searching for a solution to resettle the group, as the Coalition heavily criticised the government’s preparedness to manage the safety risk posed by the ex-detainees, elevating the NZYQ episode into one of the Coalition’s main attack lines on Labor’s law and order record.

“Nauru have described these three visas as the first three, and that’s how it should be seen,” Burke said, indicating Nauru could take more. “I am very grateful to the government of Nauru.

“They will be put on a plane and sent to Nauru as soon as arrangements are able to be made.

“All three have failed the character test. When someone has come and treated Australians in a way that shows appalling character, their visas do get cancelled.”

Burke on Sunday said Nauru, an island in the Pacific north-east of Australia, had approached Australia to take three violent criminal members of the cohort, including one who was a convicted murderer. They were put back into immigration detention because the law allows people to be detained if they are on a pathway to leaving Australia.

Labor passed laws in 2023 to put conditions on the released group. Australian Border Force officials last year said at least two murderers or people who had attempted murder and 26 sex offenders released were required to wear an electronic ankle monitor or observe a curfew.

The government was forced to introduce laws aimed at restoring curfews and ankle bracelets for former immigration detainees after the High Court last year found the government did not have the authority to impose curfews or electronic tracking devices on detainees.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has seized on any sign of Labor’s mismanagement of security policy, feeding his narrative that left-wing governments fail to keep the community safe.

He said on Sunday he would be “happy to have a look at the arrangements the government’s put in place”.

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said 65 members of the group had re-offended and none had been preventively detained under laws passed to put some of them back behind bars.

“Sending just a handful to Nauru is hardly going to keep Australians safe. When it comes to community safety, it’s always too little too late from Anthony Albanese,” he said.

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