Key Points
- More than 90 asylum seekers were released from indefinite detention after a High Court ruling.
- New migration laws passed on Thursday impose strict monitoring and reporting requirements for detainees.
- Lawyers and human rights experts said the laws were rushed and need review, deeming them too harsh.
which were effective this weekend have been criticised as "deeply troubling", with law experts calling for them to be reviewed.
More than 90 people released from indefinite detention will now be fitted with ankle monitors and face imprisonment, with breaches of tight reporting requirements considered a criminal offence.
The freed detainees included some murderers and rapists that have previously completed sentences for their crimes in correctional facilities.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said those released face strict conditions and must abide by them, with community safety "our number one concern".
Giles said the full implications of the High Court's decision would be properly understood once it released the reasons behind its decision.
"We will consider future legislation if required," he said.
The president of the Law Council of Australia, which represents 90,000 lawyers, said the strict conditions on convicted criminals were "disproportionate" to the risks they pose.
"We have strong concerns about the rushed passage of an Act that imposes harsh offence provisions subject to mandatory sentences and draconian limitations on liberty that are disproportionate to the risks it seeks to address," Luke Murphy said.
He said people who had completed prison sentences were routinely released into the community and that there was no proof to suggest citizenship status affected the likelihood of reoffending.
Murphy also claimed mandatory sentencing requirements were arbitrary, leading to "unjust, harsh and disproportionate outcomes".
"The Law Council believes that placing restrictions on the liberties of individuals based on a prediction they may commit a future offence is only legitimate as an extraordinary and appropriately tailored scheme," he said.
What do the new laws state?
The new laws allow the Department of Home Affairs to determine visa conditions and measures, rather than a court or independent panel review.
Detainees will be required to report on the people they live with, their travel plans, associations with clubs or organisations, financial information and any contact with individuals or groups involved in criminal activity.
Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS), a nonprofit legal provider, said the extrajudicial sanctions by the Albanese government were "deeply troubling".
"This rushed legislation endeavours to swap the harms of indefinite immigration detention with protracted criminal sanctions,” RACS Acting Principal Solicitor Alison Ryan said.
Ryan said it was "unprecedented" to "criminalise breaches of visa conditions in this way", with penalties ranging from one to five years imprisonment or $33,000 fines.
“Rather than imposing extrajudicial sanctions, we must support their rehabilitation and reintegration into the Australian community where appropriate," she said.
She said reducing the risk of recidivism in this way is "very much in the interests of community safety."
Terrorism protection laws floated
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the government had been caught flat-footed and more should have been done to keep the serious offenders behind bars.
Police can apply to the courts to keep terrorists who have completed their sentences locked up if they pose a risk to the community, to have them detained before being convicted and to heavily supervise them once they're released.
Paterson said the government should have considered such a regime.
The Liberal senator said it was "a well-accepted and well-tested area of law that could be applied at the very least to the highest risk offenders".
"The government should be looking at this as an option ... some are very serious, violent offenders," he told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.
"The government was not ready and did not do that. Those could have been used to detain, at the very least, the highest risk among this cohort."
Paterson said he expected the new monitoring regime would apply to almost all of the released offenders, despite potential legal questions over ministerial discretion after the ruling.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said further actions would follow once the reasoning became clear so the government could be sure any new regime could withstand another legal challenge.
"When the reasons for the decision are handed down at the beginning of next year, we will then be able to look at what else we can do," she told Sky News.
The new scheme was the best way to ensure community safety while acting within the confines of the law, she said.
O'Neil has argued she would have kept the offenders in immigration detention indefinitely if she had the power to do so.
She also admitted her department had received advice they were likely to win the court case but added possible responses to any ruling had been considered.
