Alan Ferguson (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, the Australian government has made no assumptions in relation to his guilt or innocence. We say that the process that has been put in place must be allowed to go on because it is important. It is the only way that David Hicks can be put before a court. He is in America because he is their prisoner, not ours. We in the Australian government—and the Prime Minister has repeated this—have been concerned all along at the delays in progressing the case. But we need to remember that the first charges were laid after he had been held for two years, Hicks’s lawyers then appealed, the Supreme Court upheld their appeal and so they started again. David Hicks has no need to be in detention. If he had not been in Afghanistan in the first place, he would not be in detention.