Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank those speakers who have contributed to what is a very important bill and debate for the chamber to consider, on the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions and Other Measures) Bill 2023. To recap, we're here today because the High Court have handed down their decision. The government had due notice of it back in June, when the first indication from the High Court was given to the government that there would potentially be an issue. The matter was ultimately decided by the High Court, and we now learn that reasons for the judgement will be handed down tomorrow.

The situation is that the government had options available to them to prevent people with serious criminal histories—people of significantly bad character, people who had committed murder, sexual offences against women and children, and other serious offences—from being released into the community. The government had the option to bring forward legislation, and in the last parliamentary week, as many will recall, there was a shambolic attempt by the home affairs minister and the immigration minister to patch something together at the eleventh hour, drafting legislation through the night. It will doubtless come as no surprise to anyone in this place that we're here today to patch up some of the deficiencies in the laws designed by the Labor Party at the eleventh hour, Labor having said for the first part of the last sitting week that it was not possible to pass legislation to address some of these concerns.

We find ourselves, as the honourable member for Parkes pointed out a minute ago, with a case of deja vu. We had advice yesterday, on Sunday evening, that there would be a briefing available to the coalition this morning. We arrived at the briefing for the coalition this morning. The two ministers were there. Again, the documents had been put together in a hasty fashion. They had not been properly considered. This is well and truly designing of a bill on the run, and on such a serious issue the government stands condemned in that regard. I've had three meetings with the Prime Minister today, and I'm grateful for his time.

The resolve of the coalition is to make sure that whatever can be done is done to take these people back into immigration detention. That's what would provide the safest outcome for the Australian public over this Christmas holiday period: for these people, and potentially hundreds more, not to be in the community but to be back in immigration detention. There should be a preventative detention regime as part of this bill, and it should be drafted with haste by the government. Obviously, once the outcome is provided tomorrow by the High Court, it can be in accordance with the advice from the High Court.

The proposition at the moment is that this is being rushed through the lower house and then it's going to sit.

So it's not going to the upper house, where advised.

We said this to the government early this morning: 'Don't rush this bill. There's no need to suspend standing orders, because you haven't properly drafted this bill. There are flaws all through it, and it has no mention of preventative detention whatsoever.' The ministers who made the grave errors of judgement and embarrassed the Prime Minister in his absence in the last sitting week have been let loose again, but the Prime Minister, to his credit, is stepping up and addressing some of the very legitimate concerns, but this should not be before the House now. Why would you rush this bill through overnight when the High Court is providing its reasons tomorrow? Originally that was to be in February of next year. But now we find out the High Court delivers its reasons for the judgement tomorrow, so why would the government seek to rush it through? Because these two ministers don't have a single clue between them! And that's the problem.

We believe that there is an option available to the government to stop these people in their tracks and to stop them from committing further crimes and being able to take them back into immigration detention, and that is what we commit to working with the government on over the course of the sitting week. If we need to sit on Friday or over the weekend or next week, then we will do that, but we will make sure that the coalition holds this government to account, because, at the moment, they've released people into the community who shouldn't be there.

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