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

Senator Hanson, the situation isn't quite what you described. What we do know from the High Court's decision is that it applies to a very specific and relatively small group of people in immigration detention, not everyone who is in immigration detention and not everyone who is living in the community either. The decision of the High Court applies only to no-citizens of Australia for whom there is no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future and who are therefore not capable of being subject to immigration detention under certain sections of the Migration Act. In relation to the particular individual who brought the case which went to the High Court, the plaintiff in that case, that person is stateless. They are a Rohingyan refugee, and they don't have citizenship in any particular country because of the nature of disputes where they originally came from. That person has nowhere to be sent back to, just to put it simply.

Similarly, you will have read the coverage on the person from Malaysia who has either been charged with or convicted of—I'm not exactly sure which—issues around what seems to be an assassination. Because of the death penalty that exists in certain countries, Australia's position is that we don't deport people in that situation. That's been a longstanding policy of Australian governments of both persuasions. There's a particular group of people in immigration detention who for one reason or another cannot be deported from Australia. It's only those people to whom the High Court decision applies. But for other immigrants to Australia who may not have a right to be here, if there is a home country that they can be deported to, they can be held in detention and then deported. Hopefully that addresses your question. We're not talking about the entire group of migrants to Australia or those in immigration detention; it's only that relatively small number of people.