Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak today on this report, entitled Immigration detention in Australia: facilities, services and transparency. As a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, I am pleased that the committee took on the challenge of addressing some of the most important issues that remain outstanding in immigration detention in Australia. Those issues are: the criteria that should be applied in determining how long a person should be held in immigration detention; the criteria that should be applied in determining when a person should be released from immigration detention, following health and security checks; options to expand the transparency and visibility of immigration detention centres; the preferred infrastructure options for contemporary immigration detention; and options for the provision of detention services and detention health services across the range of current detention facilities, including immigration detention centres, immigration residential housing, immigration transit accommodation and community detention.

In considering the options for additional community based alternatives to immigration detention, the committee inquired into international experience and the manner in which such alternatives might be utilised in Australia to broaden the options available within the current immigration detention framework. It compared the cost-effectiveness of these alternatives with current options. These considerations formed the terms of reference for the inquiry into immigration detention in Australia.

It is true that the closure of Woomera and Baxter detention centres was to the benefit of detainees and improved the way that Australia treats unlawful noncitizens. However, the mere closure of some facilities did not resolve the ongoing problems of existing facilities or new facilities being built, such as the Christmas Island facility. It did not determine on what basis people should be released from detention and the support that should be provided to those people and their families while applications for visas are considered or arrangements made for their removal. The joint standing committee sought to address those significant issues through this inquiry.

The committee has previously released two reports in relation to this inquiry and has now released the third and final report. The first report dealt with the criteria for release from detention. The second report dealt with the community based alternatives to detention. This final report focuses on the options to expand the transparency and visibility of immigration detention centres, the preferred infrastructure options for contemporary immigration detention and options for the provision of detention services and detention health services across a range of current detention facilities, including all of those that I have already identified.

It is true, as we have already heard from other speakers, that it was difficult in some cases to do a full analysis because of the lack of data that is currently collected. We certainly appreciate the conversations that have been had with DIAC about the need to improve on that data collection and have that data—

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