In documentation accompanying the release of the amendment,the government has also acknowledged its legislation could breach human rights relating to discrimination,given Australian citizens who have been convicted of similar offences are not subject to similar restrictions.
But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton left the door open to further strengthening the legislation after last week voting against separate measures introduced by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles because they weren’t tough enough.
The new amendments will be debated in the Senate this week as the government races to push through their detainee bill before parliament rises for the year at the end of the week.
“They don’t have the desire to think outside of the box when it comes to keeping Australians safe,and we’ll support bills that are going to keep Australians safe,” Dutton told a Sydney press conference on Monday.
“If we see a bad bill,we’re not going to support it. If there are amendments that we can make to try and improve a piece of legislation,then we’ll do that constructively as well.”
Labor and the Coalition teamed up last month to pass laws requiring former detainees to wear ankle bracelets and abide by strict curfews,regardless of whether they had criminal convictions.
The latest amendment will enable the government to ask a court to return a former detainee to custody for up to three years if they have previously been convicted of a violent or sexual crime attracting a maximum sentence of at least seven years,and a judge agrees there is a high probability they will commit another offence.
A data sheet released by Home Affairs last month,when about 93 detainees had been released,showed 56 of them had committed violent or sexual offences.
The amendment also applies to people who have been convicted of the same kind of offences overseas,with several legal experts saying they were not aware of any other legislation in Australia that allows judges to detain someone on the basis of a foreign conviction.
Constitutional expert George Williams said the counter-terror legislation on which the new bill is modelled only referred to Australian convictions.
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“They’re in constitutionally uncharted territory,we’ll just have to see what happens,” Williams said.
A government spokesperson said the government was unable to comment on individual cases.
“Further,as the matter is before the court,it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the spokesperson said.
“Peter Dutton and the opposition say they back a preventive detention model”,a spokesman for Giles said. “They only have one chance to back up their talk by working constructively with the government to pass this legislation this week.”
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the jobs of Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil were “hanging on the line now”,and that both should “do the honourable thing and resign”.
“Community safety is the number one priority of any government,and they have seriously failed to uphold that priority.”
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