Andrew Giles’ controversial deportation bill is on the backburner.Credit:Joe Armao
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan described the absence of the legislation from next week’s slate as “more gross incompetence” from Giles,whose performance has been criticised after being mired in controversies over the deportation of foreign criminals and the fallout from a legal ruling triggering the release of 160 immigration detainees.
“He said at the time this was a matter of national urgency,yet that urgency has disappeared before our eyes. Andrew Giles needs to explain why this is all of a sudden not urgent,why has the importance of this issue disappeared?” Tehan said.
The bill threatens up to five years’ jail for non-citizens refusing to go back to their countries and bans entire nationalities from visiting Australia if their governments won’t accept citizens being returned against their will.
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It was introduced before aHigh Court freedom bid by an Iranian detainee who the government said was being lawfully held and could be deported if he co-operated with efforts to remove him.
The government denied the two were directly linked,although conceded the measures would be helpful should the government lose the case.
Giles tried to ram it through both houses of parliament within two days in March. It was blocked by the Senate and referred to a parliamentary inquiry,where it was criticised by multicultural communities,the human rights watchdog,the ombudsman and former immigration officials.