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“From today,our agencies will be implementing requirements on individuals to report details of people they live with,travel plans,associations with clubs or other organisations,financial information,or any contact they have with individuals or groups alleged to be involved in criminal activity,” Giles said.
The conditions also include curfews,a ban on convicted child sex offenders from working with children and from being within 200 metres of a school,childcare centre or daycare centre. Violent offenders and those convicted of sexual assault will be banned from contacting their victims.
Breaching the conditions carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year and a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
“These measures are mandatory conditions that we’re imposing on individuals in this case. They will continue to be imposed as long as they are in the country,” Giles said. “Our response has been based on legal advice to put in place proportionate and lawful measures to keep the community safe.”
The visa conditions were imposed afterthe government rushed emergency laws through parliament on Thursday,as it scrambled to respond to a High Court decision that quashed a two-decade legal precedent allowing non-citizens to be detained indefinitely if they were unable to be deported to their country of origin. The laws give the minister some discretion over electronic monitoring and curfew requirements,stating the measures “must be imposed unless the minister is satisfied that the[visa] holder does not pose a risk to the community”.
Labor hasfaced heavy criticism from the Coalition for failing to prepare a legislative response before the court’s decision. The government was forced to capitulate to the opposition’s demands to beef up the strictness of the visa conditions to pass the laws through parliament.
Coalition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said the government should have set up an ongoing detention scheme similar to that used for high-risk terrorist offenders,arguing it was “appropriate” for those in the cohort who posed the “highest risk” of violent re-offending.
“They should not be on the streets,even with an ankle bracelet,even with a curfew applied. That’s the danger that the community is exposed to,” Paterson said.
The cohort includes a number of murderers,including Malaysian hitman Sirul Azhar Umar who was convicted in Malaysia over the infamous 2006 murder of 28-year-old Mongolian translator Altantuyaa Shaariibuu,but escaped to Australia and cannot be deported because he faces the death penalty upon his return.
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Documents tabled in the Senate late on Thursday evening revealed a “dashboard” prepared for the government on October 19 before the High Court’s verdict,showed 27 of the detainees had been referred to immigration ministers over several years under the category of “very serious violent offences,very serious crimes against children,very serious family or domestic violence or violent,sexual or exploitative offences”.
During the High Court hearing,Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue raised the prospect that there was a broader cohort of 340 people in immigration detention who may be affected by the decision to overturn the government’s ability to detain them indefinitely.
On Saturday,Giles appeared to downplay this prospect,saying the figure referred only to a group that had been in immigration detention for one year or more.