Home Secretary Clare O’Neil has strongly vowed to crack down on criminals freed last week by the Supreme Court ruling which found the indefinite detention of certain non-citizens to be illegal – despite the fact that they were unable to introduce a new law to undo it.
A total of 80 perpetrators – including some who committed serious crimes such as child sexual abuse – were released after the decision was handed down, sparking concern and panic among the general public.
The mass release comes after a refugee – known in the proceedings only as NZYQ – who raped a 10-year-old boy was released into the community by the High Court.
During Question Time on Tuesday, Ms O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles vowed to take “immediate action” to keep the community safe.
Ms O’Neil said she wanted it to be clear that the Commonwealth had spoken out against the release of certain non-citizens.
“Some of these people have committed disgusting crimes,” she said.
“Some of them hurt people who are still here in our country. And it is those victims that we care about.
“I can tell Parliament that there is a single focus and a single priority that we are using to manage the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision, and that is the safety of the community of Australian citizens who elect us to this Parliament. ‘
But Ms O’Neil and Mr Giles are hampered by the fact that the High Court has not yet issued written reasons for the decision, limiting the immediate legal action the government can take.
Home Secretary Clare O’Neil (pictured) has pledged to take ‘immediate action’ to keep the community safe after 80 asylum seekers – including a convicted murderer and a pedophile – were released from indefinite detention following a ruling by the Supreme Court last week
Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan asked how the Albanian government would financially support the 80 “hardcore criminals” released into the community.
“This also applies to a pedophile who raped a ten-year-old boy,” he said.
‘What housing and other financial support is the government now offering to this convicted pedophile and the other hardcore criminals to live in the community?’
Mr Giles responded by saying he had personally opposed the application for reasons he said united everyone in Parliament.
“That we believe that non-citizens, that non-citizens who have committed very serious criminal offences, including sexual offenses such as those that the shadow minister just referred to, should not remain in Australia,” he said.
‘The circumstances here are of course that we have not been able to remove them.
“When I say we, I say again that these are people, none of whom have arrived in Australia since the election of the Albanian government.
‘The colleagues on the other side may have to take that into account.’
In a joint statement, Ms O’Neil and Mr Giles said law enforcement agencies have been working around the clock to impose tough restrictions on these criminals.
“We only release them because the law requires us to do so,” the statement said.
Ms O’Neil (pictured) said the Commonwealth had opposed the release of certain non-citizens from detention, some of whom she said had committed ‘disgusting crimes’.
Local and state police were briefed by senior Australian Border Police officials, and the Australian Federal Police Commissioner has since held high-level meetings with each state and territory partner.
Offenders released as a result of the decision will be transferred to state and territory-based ‘post-crime programs’ and each offender will ‘face prosecution’.
The strict, mandatory visa conditions imposed on these offenders include: ‘restricting the types of employment, requiring regular reporting to authorities and requiring released detainees to provide their personal data, including their social media profiles , to report.
“In addition, the government has imposed daily reporting requirements on those with the most serious criminal histories.”
These requirements are in addition to any sanctions imposed by the state.
The government is also exploring further measures it can take, which may include legislation to close any loopholes.
“This was a decision of the full bench of the Supreme Court declaring the detention unconstitutional. It cannot be reversed by parliament,” the ministers said in their joint statement.
The decision reversed a 20-year precedent that allowed the Commonwealth to detain non-citizens who had committed crimes.
The court ruled in favor of a Rohingya pedophile – known in the proceedings as NZYQ – who has been in custody since serving a prison sentence for child sex abuse.
The Albanian government was accused of releasing 80 ‘hard criminals’ into the community during Question Time on Tuesday (photo, Anthony Albanese in Parliament)
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim people who live in western Myanmar, near the border with Bangladesh, and are persecuted there.
Because the Rohingya are not citizens of Myanmar – which considers them Bangladeshis and not a separate ethnic group – NZYQ cannot be deported there.
NZYQ arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 and had his bridging visa revoked in 2015 when he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse with a 10-year-old child.
He was transferred to an immigration detention center in May 2018 after serving a minimum sentence of three years and four months and being denied a ‘safe haven enterprise’ visa.
Until the Supreme Court’s ruling, NZYQ faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life in immigration detention. He has now been released into the community and the Commonwealth will pay his legal costs.
In the aftermath of the decision, the government admitted that a further 92 people were being held in similar conditions, and that up to 300 people in total could be affected.
Among those now released is Sirul Azahr Umar, 51, who was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, the pregnant girlfriend of a political agent, whom he killed and then blew up the body.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and Employment Minister Tony Burke are in talks before question time on Tuesday
Umar, who had been a bodyguard for the Malaysian prime minister, was released from Villawood Detention Center in Sydney on Saturday and is now staying with a relative in Canberra.
The woman he killed was the partner of Razak Baginda, a close associate of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said on Monday that 80 of the detainees, including a Malaysian assassin, had already been released and given visas.
Anyone released under the High Court ruling has now been granted a bridging visa and is required to report regularly to the police or the relevant authorities.
Mr Giles emphasized that the Australian Federal Police and Border Patrol were involved in the release of the detainees and their future supervision to protect public safety.
The Australian government had opposed the court’s decision, but the minister said they were prepared to deal with the consequences.