Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Again, it would come as no surprise that the government does not support the Greens amendments in this regard. It does not support removing the current presumption against bail. The current presumption against bail for persons sought for extradition is appropriate. I think that in some part the issue around flight risk may or may not have been underestimated by the Greens in their argument for withdrawing that. But, if you look at the House report, I think that it is quite clear there at 2.59, where it says:

The current presumption against bail for persons sought for extradition is appropriate given the serious flight risk posed by the person in extradition matters, and—

I will add an emphasis here—

Australia’s international obligations to secure the return of alleged offenders to face justice in the requesting country.

So there is that extra requirement about our international standing. I think the emphasis should not be lost. It continues:

The High Court in United Mexican States v Cabal has previously observed that to grant bail where a risk of flight exists would jeopardise Australia’s relationship with the country seeking extradition and jeopardise our standing in the international community.

For those reasons, the view of the Commonwealth is to continue to maintain the amendment as provided for in the legislation. If a person who has been remanded on bail disappears in the middle of extradition proceedings, it can, as I think I have emphasised, do more than just jeopardise Australia's ability to extradite the person; it would impede Australia's treaty obligations to return that person to the requesting country, and ultimately it could also lead to a state of impunity where a person can disappear and continue to evade law enforcement authorities.

Bail, of course, can be granted in special circumstances—for cases such as poor health—and in those instances it would seem appropriate to leave that to the discretion of the magistrates or the courts more broadly. The courts, in my view, have shown their willingness to grant bail when these circumstances arise. For these reasons, the government considers that the current presumption that bail should be granted only in special circumstances is appropriate and should be maintained.

Question negatived.