May 7, 2024
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CHRIS KENNY: Let's go to James Paterson, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, who's been looking at Labor's laws to try and fix this detainee detention mess. Thanks for joining us, James. You've issued a report today. You're saying you're going to support the government's legislation. You think it could help fix the problem, but you're worried about some unintended consequences?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, Chris, the ball is very much in the government's court here. Let's remember that they wanted to rush this legislation through the parliament in 72 hours. They didn't want to have a parliamentary inquiry. We forced them to have a parliamentary inquiry. And in that process, the committee received 118 submissions. Guess how many of those 118 submissions were supportive of the government's approach? One, and it was authored by the Department of Home Affairs. Every other submission utterly panned the government's approach. So what we've done is tried to be constructive. We've tried to improve the government's bill because we do recognise there's a genuine public policy problem here, which is that some people who are found not to be refugees refused to cooperate with their own deportation and then can languish in Australia for many years after they should. That's a genuine problem. The way the government has gone about it is very worrying. And as you say, unintended consequences are the great risk here. And even the department themselves acknowledge that. They said there are elements of this bill that could cause people to get back on boats again, and that's the last thing we want.
KENNY: Yeah. This is what intrigues me. We know the laws would give the government greater powers to force people to be deported if they have exhausted their attempts to get citizenship or asylum status here. How would that encourage more asylum seeker arrivals?
PATERSON: So that's one element of the bill, which we're generally supportive of, although we think a bit more rigour needs to be put around the process there, and the minister's powers there. And we've made some suggestions as to how that could happen. So the other part of the bill, I think, is more likely to contribute to that problem, which is the power of the minister to declare a country as a removal concern country, that is, a country which we cannot return people to easily, and therefore ban all visa applications from residents of that country, with some very limited exceptions. That means no tourist visas, no student visas, no skilled visas, no business visas, no family visas. A whole range of visas are going to be blocked, unless there is an exception. Now, the reason why that's a problem is many people try to come to this country lawfully with a visa, and then when they're onshore, apply for protection. If they can't even do that, it might lead them to think that the only way to get to Australia, if they're determined to do so, is to get on a boat. And I'm sure that's what people smugglers will tell them. Now if you are going to create that risk, then you have to combat that risk. And we think you have to combat that risk by restoring Operation Sovereign Borders in full, and that includes temporary protection visas, by restoring funding to Operation Sovereign Borders, instead of that planned cut of $436 million. And you have to get aerial surveillance and on water surveillance back up again to the levels where under the previous government, they've dropped like a stone under this government. And that's why boats are sneaking through all the time.
KENNY: Yeah, that's the critical points you're making. You're demanding the restoration of that funding and those patrols, but critically, also the restoration of temporary protection visas. That's going to be a tough one for Labor to deal with. We'll see what plays out in Parliament. It's timely though, because as I mentioned at the top of the show, news reports just late this afternoon confirming that five men have been apprehended in the Torres Strait, apparently, African asylum seekers coming to Australia via Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Again, this is concerning.
PATERSON: It sure is, Chris. And if these reports are confirmed, then that would then be the fourth boat in just six months that have reached Australian territory under this government's watch, the 14th boat since the election, and now well over 300 people have attempted to make this journey. I mean, Labor has clearly lost control of the borders here. You would remember in covering these issues over many years, it's extraordinarily, exceptionally rare for a boat to reach Australian territory. And yet it's happening all the time under this government and it's because they are failing to deliver that aerial surveillance and that maritime surveillance. That's the key, if they can't do that, then these boats are going to keep coming through.
KENNY: A hell of a worry, thanks for joining us James.
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