Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

If I might indicate the Labor Party's position, the best advice that we have available is that it is already standard operating practice for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to make a risk assessment when placing people in detention centres. I am advised that the detainees are assessed for risks that they pose either to others or to themselves, and therefore Labor will not be supporting this amendment. For a similar reason, we opposed a similar proposition that was advanced in earlier legislation by Senator Madigan. The amendment would merely place an unnecessary legislative restriction on the department and the Australian Border Force, which we believe is a matter left to the discretion of relevant officers, and they have to be held accountable for the decisions that they take, through the normal parliamentary and legal processes.