Alex Antic (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy President; I'll have to truncate my remarks based on that early warning. As far as I'm concerned, it is an extraordinary day in the Australian federal parliament—actually, it was yesterday—when you see the cheer squad of the socialist Left in this country, the Guardian newspaper, taking aim at the most socialist government we have had in this country in living memory, possibly since the Whitlam government. The Guardian story, which was referred to by my colleague Senator Fawcett, was about this lady—this victim—Sonya, who has given her story to the Guardian.

I'll come to that in a minute, but, of course, I'm taking note of the answers given by Senator Wong in relation to the recent decision of the High Court overturning a 20-year precedent that has underpinned the migration policy in this country. The net effect of that has been that, I think, the plaintiff in this case—a man who, by the way, raped a 10-year-old boy; a child sexual offender—is released into the community. We know that there are at least 83 at the moment and potentially upwards of 92 detainees who are going to be released from immigration detention as a consequence of this judgement.

When challenged in the House yesterday, the Labor government continued to fudge its position in respect of what is happening. We were told that there were going to be strict restrictions put on the detainees. In fact, here today Senator Ciccone has just mentioned the government is working through these issues, which is good to know. It's good to know we're working through them. We heard from Senator Bilyk that there was a strong chance these people were going to be case managed—that's encouraging. We also heard earlier on, I think, that this government has left open the option of electronic bracelets for the ankles. That's going to be a great comfort, isn't it, for people like Sonya, whom the Guardianthe cheer squad of the socialist Left in this country—reported on? The Guardian says here:

When the man who raped Sonya at her work was released on parole, she was told he would "never be free in Australia" as he would be held indefinitely in immigration detention.

That's not the awful Murdoch press that we hear so much about; that's the Guardian.

There are people in this country driving around now who are putting bumper stickers on with, 'Don't blame me; I voted Liberal.' The buyers remorse about this government is now reaching fever point, and this highlights it. The government have no idea what they're doing about this. They're scrambling for a solution, and all the time in the meantime, Australian people are being put at risk because of this flat-footed approach to this decision.

Question agreed to.