Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question on this very serious matter. It is the case that, on Wednesday of last week, the High Court handed down a decision which required the release of noncitizens—noncitizens who, as the Leader of the Opposition and others have said, include people who have committed very, very serious crimes—from immigration detention, where I had maintained them. The High Court required their release. We put before the court the details of those potentially affected. The High Court's decision required a consideration of those held in immigration detention against the test the High Court had set out, being people with no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future.

On that basis, in accordance with the decision of the court, the relevant officers in the department—and the Leader of the Opposition would be familiar with the process—with powers under the Migration Act made those considerations as soon as possible. I can inform the House: I said yesterday that 80 such people were required to be released; a further person was released yesterday, and I have imposed similarly strict visa conditions on that person.

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