At the recent Senate Estimates, I inquired with Border Force officials about what was needed to ensure the safety of Australians. True to form, Minister Watt attempted to shift blame onto the previous government. He mentioned measures like monitoring and curfews, but refused to accept responsibility for detainee-related crimes, and failed to offer a reasonable solution.
When asked about the government’s legislation regarding the re-detention of dangerous detainees, departmental representatives explained that it was a high bar to meet before requests could be put before a court seeking an Order.
Transcript
Senator ROBERTS: Would you agree, Mr Outram and Ms Holben, that it’s a difficult issue? It’s a challenging issue. You’ve got safety considerations. You’ve got legal considerations—all the things you mentioned a minute ago, Mr Outram. It’s not easy.
Mr Outram: Running borders is challenging.
Senator ROBERTS: Yes, it is, and it’s a fundamental duty of the federal government to keep our borders secure. To make it clearer and easier for us and safer for people, what are your greatest issues? What are the core
issues that you need to have addressed by the government?
Mr Outram: That’s a very wide-ranging question. I could talk for a very long time. Our functions fall into three areas, I suppose. One is the customs function that we undertake, which is of course about collection of duty revenue, management of and administration of the Customs Act, and ensuring that prohibited goods don’t get brought across our border.
Senator ROBERTS: I mean in relation to keeping people safe in this country and keeping our border secure. What do you need on this issue that we have been talking about at length for hours now?
Mr Outram: Preventing prohibited goods from coming in across our border keeps our country safe. So I’d say—
Senator ROBERTS: On this issue—
Mr Outram: the management of cargo is a big area for us. We have, as I said in my opening statement, a 70 per cent projected increase in cargo over the next ten years.
Senator ROBERTS: With respect, I’m trying to help you on this issue, which is about the safety of the citizens of this country and about dealing with hardened criminals, murderers, rapists and domestic violence offenders. I’d like to know: what are your biggest cost components? You’ve talked about surveillance. You’ve talked about so many different measures that you’ve had to do—’unprecedented’. Senator Ghosh was getting at a good point. But what do you need from us or what do you need from the government to fix this?
Mr Outram: As I said earlier on, our budget is sitting at unprecedented levels. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes in relation to our civil maritime capabilities. We’re working very closely with Defence and looking at how we put those capabilities on a more sustainable footing going forwards into the future. That will be really important.
Senator ROBERTS: You said that you have to comply with the law. I’m pleased to hear you say that. You said that you’ve got to do it within the legal regime you’ve got. What legal regime would you prefer? What fine-
tuning would you need?
Mr Outram: That’s really a policy question.
Senator ROBERTS: Minister, what do these people need to solve this problem?
Senator Watt: What was the question?
Senator ROBERTS: We’ve talked about unprecedented cost levels and unprecedented risks. What do we need to solve the problem?
Senator Watt: Sorry, what is the problem that you’re talking about?
Senator ROBERTS: Safety of people, keeping these murderers and other criminals in the country at the moment—how do we get rid of them? How do we protect people’s safety?
Senator Watt: What the government has been trying to do is to keep the Australian people safe. That’s why there are a range of cases that have had their visas cancelled with a view to deportation. Those people have been kept in detention during that time. As a result of a High Court decision and other legal decisions, the government’s attempt to keep these people in detention or deport them has been overturned. What we’ve done is follow the law, comply with the law, which I would hope that you would agree is needed, but we do it in a way that maximises the safety of the Australian people by putting into place—
Senator ROBERTS: We’ve also got—
Senator Watt: Hang on, can I just finish—by putting into place an unprecedented system of protection with electronic monitoring and curfews. We just heard in response to those questions from Senator Ghosh that, in the time Mr Dutton was the home affairs minister, it would appear that dozens of murderers, sex offenders and other offenders were released from detention without a single skerrick of protection like what this government is putting in place. There was not one electronic bracelet nor one curfew, and yet Mr Dutton and his cohorts are out there claiming that this government is not protecting the Australian people when we’re doing more than Mr Dutton ever did as the minister.
Senator ROBERTS: Will Minister Giles rescind directive 99? Will he stop people claiming to be Aboriginal connected to overturn a deportation order, failing character tests? Will directive 99—
Senator Watt: Senator Roberts, I think the chair has been clear that we’ve dealt with direction 99.
Senator ROBERTS: Let’s move on then. Why has Labor not applied to redetain noncitizens who pose an unacceptable risk to the community in the last six months since Labor passed legislation specifically aimed at
doing just that? Why have you not redetained people?
Senator Watt: I think Ms Sharp addressed that prior to the lunch break, but she might be willing to give you a summarised version of that again.
Ms Sharp: Certainly, Senator. As I was saying prior to lunch, the Community Safety Order scheme is modelled on the High Risk Terrorist Offenders Scheme. Applications under it need to be made to the court and need to be accompanied by a very substantial set of evidence. The evidence needs to go to all information known to the Commonwealth for why the order should be granted, and also all information known to the Commonwealth for why the order should not be granted. That requires an extensive review of records held by government agencies across the Commonwealth, and the states and territories, followed by the receipt of expert evidence that looks at the risk profile of the individual. That expert evidence is gained through individual assessments, one-on-one with psychiatrists et cetera, to really form up whether we have a reasonable case to demonstrate to the court that the only way to protect the community from a high risk of the person committing a serious, violent or sexual offence is detention. It’s a very high legal bar to cross.
Senator ROBERTS: Let’s move on to the recent Palestinian refugees from Gaza given fast-track visas. Why were they given special treatment, where some visas were said to be given with only an hour of scrutiny and
processing? An hour?
Chair: Senator Roberts, officials will probably dispute the assumptions made in your question. I won’t put myself on the other side of the table, but we did have extensive questioning on that earlier—it does relate to
outcome 2 as well.
Senator ROBERTS: Okay. Given that 80 per cent of Palestinians support the inhuman terrorist Hamas regime in Gaza, how can these Palestinians be shown not to be a danger to Australians in such a short time?
Chair: Senator Roberts, that relates to outcome 2. Apart from being divisive language, it’s probably not an appropriate question in parliament—
Senator ROBERTS: Last question—when will Palestine be declared a country of concern so that high-risk applicants from Palestine are not able to be considered for a visa?
Senator Watt: I’m not actually even sure if that’s possible, given that Palestine is not a nation.
Senator ROBERTS: So you have to have a nation before you can—
Senator Watt: I don’t know, I’m guessing that’s the way it works, but officials might know better than me.
Senator Reynolds: Yes—
Senator Watt: I’m doing my best to assist the committee, Senator Reynolds!
Chair: Yes.
Senator ROBERTS: Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Chair.
Chair: Thank you, Senator Roberts. Senator Paterson.
and the chair is just a patsie for the left wing government to stifle any discussion about real issues of illegal immigration.
we do not need or want criminals coming into australia.
Thank you – checks and balances are so necessary and you are providing that
I was in Cairns DFO car park this arvo putting my whole $50 worth of groceries in the car & a seemingly ordinary mid 30s white woman well dressed and sober, was begging for change from shoppers…. This was something we encountered ou recent visit to South Africa, white people begging at supermarkets. So one has to wonder why are things getting desperate when have carpark beggars in Cairns and is this the beginning of a bigger crisis to come
So it got me thinking about all the recent policies the Miles government introduced
Recently QLD Labor govt introduced legislation preventing rental increases to 12 months on properties only. They have sold this as “ making it fairer for Tenants” but the reality is it’s not fair at all! a tenant can start a new tenancy at the current rental rate but maybe hit with a significant increase within their lease agreement period, depending when the last 12 month increase started last year.
The real reason labour government has done this is because they have been caught with their pants down on an over boiling immigration policy and lack of investment into public social housing .
Let me explain.
By capping rents every 12 months per property temporarily slows down the CPI on rents this will force many investors to sell their properties which will put a new flourish of properties onto the market thereby increasing supply and flattening prices, to flatten CPI
They are diddling in a free market to try and reduce the CPI of rentals and property sale values. Sounds clever, but this will only be a temporary fix. This will not end up well for those renting. Supply of the rental market will decrease as investors leave and sell up, and who would be willing to jump into investing in this heavily legislated area where tenants have more rights over the property than the owner. Rents will go up even higher every year due to diminishing supply and ongoing immigration causing demand.
Bigger picture…Labor are hoping people will start building more houses with the increased first homeowners grant and an increase in the stamp duty subsidy. But, can anyone really afford to build a new home? I And do we have enough builders to even build these new houses? And this is the hair in their soup and where Labor’s clever plan falls apart at the seams.
Homelessness is about to explode and this is why I suspect the Miles government is a panic build, repurposing retirement homes etc to create emergency housing accommodation.
Next step post election if we find ourselves with another term of the Miles government will we will find ourselves having the government legislate rental increases being capped which exacerbating the problem.
So remind people don’t be fooled into believing that this legislation is for helping Tenants. It’s Labor created who the lockdowns and then tried to fix it with unmitigated immigration and they failed to invest in social housing for past 10 years. To sum up Labor incompetence the Miles Government is trying to cover their asses because they’ve been caught with their pants down on immigration.
Tracey, thank you for writing this. I am looking for a place at the moment and it surely a different world out there. I’ve learned to not trust anyone. I just read about the so-called 12 month increase rule on the RTA site. I can’t take stairs, I can’t mow lawns and now I have to narrow done the possibilities if they can increase the rent before the end of a 12 month lease. How tricky. Thank you so much for raising this.
I wonder why we are paying these people who seem unable to answer any question without a lot of hogwash and horsefeathers.. Time we had a great deal more transparency in the corporate government and a return to the English most of us speak and not the ducking and weaving lingo so evident the responses given to your questions Senator Roberts.
Thank you for your efforts to keep the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.s honest”.
Senator Roberts spoke truths. Oh dear.