Coalition warns detention changes risk border protection
By Online parliamentary correspondent Emma Rodgers
Posted Tue Jul 29, 2008 2:23pm AEST
The Federal Opposition says it will not support any changes to Australia's mandatory detention laws amid warnings the changes will weaken border protection.
Under new reforms announced today by Immigration Minister Chris Evans, asylum seekers will no longer be detained once they have been ruled out as a risk to society.
The Immigration Department will now also have to make a case as to why someone should be detained.
Senator Evans has described the approach as more compassionate than the previous government's policy.
The changes have been broadly welcomed by refugee groups but Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison has described the move as a knee-jerk reaction which sends the message that Australia has softened its border protection.
"I think the weakening of Australia's strong immigration detention policy will send a clear message to the region that we are relaxing border control," he said.
"The intelligence we have demonstrates there are still people smugglers in the region ... that intelligence has not changed over the last couple of years."
Senator Ellison has also called on the Government to provide more detail of what will happen when asylum seekers are released into the community and how they will be supported.
"To simply release these people into the community without any support, without any plan as to what is to happen with them shows no compassion for them either," he said.
The Government will be able to make some administrative adjustments in order to implement the changes but laws may also have to go through Parliament.
Senator Ellison says the policy should not be changed.
"We have to have a strong immigration policy and legal system which says, 'If you come to Australia and you have no right to be here then you either return from whence you came or your matter is resolved, and whilst that is being done, Australia has the right to detain you'," he said.
"Certainly the Opposition in the Senate will be taking careful note of what the Government is proposing but we will not agree to anything which relaxes Australia's border protection and we will not agree to anything which diminishes our strong immigration policy in this country."
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Illegals could 'disappear'
July 29, 2008 03:04pm
RELAXING Australia's detention rules could allow hundreds of illegal immigrants disappear into the community, the Federal Opposition says.
Under a new system unveiled by Immigration Minister Chris Evans today, asylum seekers and people caught overstaying their visas will be detained only if they pose a risk to the community.
They will remain in the community until their cases are finalised.
Boatpeople will continue to be detained on Christmas Island but with the aim of resolving their cases in the shortest time possible.
Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison said the plan had not been thought through properly and would relax the strong border protection system put in place by the Howard government.
"The fact that we only have six unauthorised arrivals in detention in Australia today demonstrates the past success of the coalition government's strong border protection policies," he said.
"But we don't have the detail as to what is to happen to these people if they're released into the community.
"These people have been found to be overstayers, to have breached their visa conditions, and it is appropriate that they be detained until they're granted a further visa or the matter is resolved one way or the other."
It was inherently difficult to keep track of people living in the wider community, and therefore to deport them, he said.
"As a result of Labor's announcement these people will be allowed to enjoy the benefits of living in Australia and potentially disappear, despite having no substantive visa to remain in Australia," Senator Ellison said.
The decision would send a message to people smugglers in the region that Australia was relaxing its border control, he said.
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