Anthony Albanese’s government accused of an ‘outrageous cover up’ after foreign criminals were released into the community
Labor has been accused of a “scandalous cover-up” after withholding timely public updates on convicted criminals released from immigration detention.
Information about former prisoners released following the Supreme Court ruling in November was previously immediately released under Operation Aegis, with 149 released into the community on December 4.
But the government will now limit this data to an existing monthly immigration report, with the latest edition, covering October, not due until late December, two months later.
In addition, the federal government will no longer inform the public if released prisoners commit state-level crimes, also previously announced under the Australian Border Force’s Operation Aegis, and will leave that to local police.
Commonwealth level offences, such as breaches of visa conditions, will be announced by the ABF.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been called on to reverse the decision to scrap the opposition’s home affairs updates.
Home Secretary James Paterson said burying the information in a monthly government report showed a “total disregard for transparency” by Labor.
“It’s appalling that they think they can now keep the public in the dark about how many foreign criminals they are releasing into the community and how many have reoffended against Australians,” Senator Paterson said.
He has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to “pull aside whoever made this secret decision.”
But speaking to Sunrise on Wednesday morning, Mr Albanese said there have been no changes in the way the public is informed since the coalition government came into power.
“There has been no change whatsoever in the information going out when Peter Dutton was Home Secretary,” Albanese said.
‘No change whatsoever.’
“The information is being released in an appropriate manner… what they (the opposition) are trying to do is perpetuate a narrative.”
One of the released prisoners confronts the media outside a drab Sydney motel
The latest data announced by the ABF shows that seven of the 148 released prisoners have been rearrested and the Prime Minister was questioned about whether that number had increased.
“Not to my knowledge, but the information is being released in the normal manner,” he said.
“If someone breaks a Commonwealth law, it will be disclosed in a transparent manner. If someone violates a state law, the states will be responsible for it in the normal way. There hasn’t been any change here.’
The released prisoners, some of whom are hardened criminals who have served prison sentences, were held because their visas had been revoked, but they had no prospect of resettlement in another country.
They were released after the Supreme Court ruled that indefinite detention was unlawful.
The Labor government in November committed an additional $255 million to Operation Aegis to hire more officers and better monitor released non-citizens.