Today’s High Court decision on the monitoring regime for dangerous immigration detention releasees is a serious blow to community safety and another damning indictment of the Albanese Government’s legal competence.
It is the third time the High Court has struck down the government’s monitoring regime for individuals released from indefinite immigration detention, including murderers, rapists, sexual abusers and human traffickers.
Three times the government has told the Australian community that its laws were sound. Three times the High Court has disagreed.
Australians are rightly asking: who is monitoring these individuals right now, and what protections do communities have tonight?
Minister Burke’s reference to the Nauru arrangement, reportedly involving just six people, does not answer the question.
There are people already released into Australian communities under this regime, and as of today, the lawful basis for monitoring them has been removed.
The Minister owes Australians a direct and immediate answer about what safeguards are now in place.
The Coalition calls on the Albanese Government to immediately advise the Australian public what monitoring or compliance arrangements, if any, remain in force following today’s ruling and what they are doing to keep the Australian community safe and fix this problem once and for all.
The Australian people deserve nothing less.
This Government has put community safety at risk time and again. The Government cannot keep blaming others for a mess entirely of its own making.
They created this problem, and they must fix it urgently. Trust is wearing thin and the clock is ticking.
This is the latest demonstration that Labor is failing to protect our way of life. Labor’s migration policies are failing Australia – standards are too low, numbers are too high, and their incompetence is putting Australians at risk.