March 28, 2024
The Albanese government has suffered a bruising defeat after a "botched" attempt to rush through new emergency powers to detain non-citizens who refused to be deported, after repeatedly failing to explain why the law was urgently needed.
The Coalition, Greens, One Nation and independent senators joined forces to block Labor's push to ram the immigration bill through the parliament after just a single day of scrutiny and instead sent it to a six-week inquiry.
After being accused of "running away from transparency", Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles fronted the media for a terse 11-minute press conference on Wednesday, but neither could explain why the bill had to be passed barely 36-hours after it was first made public.
"It's important we pass these laws efficiently," Ms O'Neil said.
The bill was introduced just weeks before the High Court is due to hear a case involving an Iranian man, known as ASF17, who is refusing to return to Iran where he fears persecution because of his sexuality. Iran also will not accept its citizens who have been involuntarily returned. But neither department officials nor Ms O'Neil would connect the new laws to this court case, due to be heard on April 17.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said without this "link" there was no clear need to rush through the laws.
"(Labor) couldn't explain what the consequences of this would be for any upcoming High Court cases, they couldn't explain how or when they would use this legislation or who would apply to," he said.
"In light of that, it's very difficult for the Coalition to support such a rushed passage of this legislation. We are very concerned about unintended consequences." The Senate inquiry into the bill has now scuttled the government's chances of passing the laws any earlier than May 14 when parliament is next due to sit.
Mr Giles said the proposed new immigration powers would "keep Australians safe".
"(The laws) fill a big gap, which has existed in our migration system for over a decade, by giving the minister the power . to enable people who have no right to remain in Australia to be removed from this country," he said.
But Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan described the process as "botched, chaotic (and) shambolic".
He said Labor had the legislation ready last Friday, but did not present it to the Coalition for consideration until Tuesday when they received just a 20-minute briefing.
"It is absolutely extraordinary," he said.
To compound the forgettable day for Ms O'Neil, in Question Time she was grilled about reports she "verbally abused" her department secretary Stephanie Foster to the point of "tears" in a discussion about immigration detainee documents last month. Ms O'Neil avoided a direct answer, but insisted she worked "closely together" with Ms Foster.
