Subjects: Preventative detention regime, High Court immigration detention ruling, Israel-Hamas conflict.
EMMA REBELLATO: Well, we want to take you to Canberra now where the government is working out how it's responding to the High Court ruling on detention. Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil joins us now.
Minister, good morning, thanks for joining us.
CLARE O'NEIL: Good morning, Emma, great to be with you.
EMMA REBELLATO: Now you said yesterday you told the Parliament that the government was moving quickly to finalise a tough preventative detention regime. What is that?
CLARE O'NEIL: We received the High Court's reasons for decision yesterday and our government is now going to move quickly to establish the toughest possible preventative detention regime.
Now to do that we are going to need the Liberals to work with us. Peter Dutton's very good at saying no and they've played a lot of politics with this issue. Let's see now if they come into the Parliament and help us keep the Australian community safe.
EMMA REBELLATO: Are you confident that this will get up this week? Because otherwise it could be another few months or quite a number of weeks before these measures can be brought in.
CLARE O'NEIL: We want to move on this as quickly as possible. Next Thursday the Parliament is due to rise. We are not going home until a preventative detention regime has been adopted by this Parliament. We're not going home.
To do that we need the Liberals to work with us. They are very good at saying no, very good at standing in our path and I'd say to Peter Dutton today stop slowing us down and work with us to make sure that we can pass these laws and keep the community safe.
EMMA REBELLATO: Well Peter Dutton has certainly got on the front foot with this issue. Has the government been caught out by not being prepared?
CLARE O'NEIL: Well I furiously dispute that. I just point out to you that within a week and one day of the original High Court decision we had set up a police operation, we had case managed the people that we were required to release in the community, and we constructed a completely new way of managing community safety while they were in the community. I have never seen an Australian Government move so quickly to adapt to a major constitutional decision.
The job for the Parliament though, now that we have the reasons for decision, we've got real clarity about what the law allows us to do. We want to put in place a tough preventative detention regime and we need the Parliament to work together to make that happen.
EMMA REBELLATO: Okay. So, since the High Court ruling a few weeks ago about 140 people were released from immigration detention. We understand one is missing. Are they still missing?
CLARE O'NEIL: That is a police matter now, Emma, and I just want to say that the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force have done an exceptional job at managing what has been quite a difficult thing for the Parliament to do. They're doing a really good job of that, and I'll leave the police to report back.
EMMA REBELLATO: But what does that say? I mean these people were released. We were told they're dangerous and that they should be in detention and now one's just gone missing.
CLARE O'NEIL: Again, Emma, that's a police matter now. That person's been referred to the Australian Federal Police and I've got great confidence in the work that this brilliant organisation does to protect our community.
EMMA REBELLATO: Okay. So we've got ‑ we've been told that 138 people are required to get ankle bracelets. Now as of yesterday 133 have them. What about the others?
CLARE O'NEIL: So, Australian Border Force are working with the Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to implement the scheme that's been put in place. They've done a really good job of that, very comprehensive and I'm proud of the work of Australian Border Force.
Ultimately the goal of our government is not to have to rely on this as a means, and that is why this preventative detention regime is so important. Now we have been waiting for the High Court to clarify the law. It did that for the Parliament yesterday. What we need now is for the Parliament to work together to find a durable solution for this problem that includes preventative detention.
I just say again we need the Parliament to cooperate on us with this. The government is trying to protect the Australian community and we need the Liberals to stop playing politics and help us do that.
EMMA REBELLATO: Well it's one thing for the Parliament to work together for these measures but we saw yesterday another legal challenge to the measures, the curfew and the ankle bracelets that have just been brought in, how confident are you that when you bring in this new measure for this preventative detention regime, that that won't face legal challenges as well?
EMMA REBELLATO: Yeah, it's a really good question, Emma, and what we have been waiting for with the High Court, the High Court made a decision which required the Commonwealth to release a number of people from immigration detention. They did something a little bit unusual in that when they made that decision they didn't explain exactly why they were doing it, and effectively what the High Court has done here is redrawn a new line between what the Parliament can do and what the courts must do. They've said effectively in their decision that politicians can't punish people, and that is a difference in what has been understood to be Australian law for a long time.
Now we have the reasons for decision we can be, we can move confidently forward into the new space and that means a preventative detention regime that stands up to constitutional challenge.
EMMA REBELLATO: Minister, I'd like to ask you also about the Middle East situation at the moment. Are you aware of how many Australians or how many people registered with DFAT still remain in Gaza and what moves there are to get them out?
CLARE O'NEIL: So, Emma, I don't have the most up‑to‑date numbers and that's a matter that the Foreign Minister leads. But I would say that we have gone to extraordinary efforts to try to get people out of the Middle East.
We have a humanitarian crisis occurring in Gaza. We have had a lot of people who have needed to come from Israel to Australia, Australians and people with a connection to our country. That's part of the complex work of government in a situation like this and I'm very proud of the Foreign Minister's efforts and our government’s efforts to help protect Australians who are overseas.
EMMA REBELLATO: Minister Clare O'Neill, thanks for joining us this morning.
CLARE O'NEIL: Thanks so much.
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