Subjects: Legislation covering NZYQ cohort released from immigration detention, High Court's decision and preventative detention.
NATALIE BARR: Well, the federal government is rushing to bring in preventative detention laws to redetain asylum seekers freed after a landmark High Court ruling. All seven justices unanimously decided indefinite detention was unlawful because it gave politicians powers that are reserved for the courts.
Labor is now working to address that, giving judges the power to redetain those considered unacceptable risks to our community.
Let's bring in Home Affairs Minister, Clare O'Neil, and Shadow Finance Minister, Jane Hume. Morning to both of you. Clare, you've said for weeks you've been waiting for the High Court to reveal its full reasons. Now you've got them, how will you organise these new laws to keep Australians safe?
CLARE O'NEIL: Thanks, Nat. The federal government did receive the High Court's reasons for decision yesterday, and now the work of the parliament really gets going. Our government wants to design the toughest possible preventative detention regime to protect the Australian community.
To do that we are going to need the Liberals to work with us. So it's time for Peter Dutton to stop saying no, stop slowing us down and actually come to the Parliament and work together to keep the Australian community safe.
NATALIE BARR: Jane, are you going to support these new laws through Parliament?
JANE HUME: Nat, look, this is difficult because I have great respect for Clare, and we go back a long way, but I cannot remember an occasion where there has been a greater public breach of public safety than by two ministers that clearly are not up to the job.
Clare released 140 detainees into the community before this High Court reasoning was handed down. They are rapists, murderers, there's a contract killer out there; one of them has already been lost. This is incompetence in the extreme.
NATALIE BARR: Jane, didn't she have to though?
JANE HUME: At every turn ‑ at every turn, Clare has blamed somebody else. She has blamed the High Court, she has blamed the Opposition, she has blamed her department, but this is on you Clare, this is your incompetence, Andrew Giles's incompetence.
You have put the Australian public at risk, and at every step of the way you've said that there is nothing you can do, and then the next day you turn around and do exactly what it is that the Coalition has been calling out for.
Today is no exception. We've been calling out for preventative detention laws for weeks now, and you could have done this months ago, but you've had your eye off the ball.
Quite frankly, you should be embarrassed that you have put the public at such risk, that you have blamed anybody else other than yourself. You should either resign, or at least ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: So perhaps I can ‑‑
JANE HUME: ‑‑ apologise.
CLARE O'NEIL: Perhaps I can respond to the character assessment that I'm getting here, Nat. Jane, you're right, you and I do go back a long time, and that's why I know I can say to you directly, that you should not lie to people in the way that you are right now.
Let's just have an honest conversation about this, and you can honestly acknowledge that the High Court of Australia ordered the Australian Government to release these people into detention, that if it were up to me, all of these people would be back into detention, that when it was up to me, before the High Court's ‑‑
JANE HUME: The High Court ordered one person, you released 140.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ decision, when it was up ‑ Jane, you've had your say ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Hang on, Clare ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ you've had your say.
NATALIE BARR: ‑‑ okay, okay, Clare, let me just cut in.
CLARE O'NEIL: You've had your say. When the High Court ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Is that correct?
CLARE O'NEIL: When the High Court made their decision ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Could you have kept ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ all these people were in detention.
NATALIE BARR: Could you have kept the others ‑ Clare, could you have kept the others in detention when the High Court said that he, the Rohingya man had to be released? Could you have kept the others in while you waited for this ruling?
CLARE O'NEIL: Very simple answer to your question, Nat ‑‑
JANE HUME: Absolutely.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ and I think, Nat, you know the answer, I think Jane knows the answer, and the answer to that question is absolutely not.
JANE HUME: You could have waited for the High Court reasoning yesterday, and you didn't.
CLARE O'NEIL: If I had any legal power to keep these people ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Well, Jane, she ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ in detention ‑ Jane ‑ Jane, you know that not to be true. Now you and I are friends, we have a long association, and we've done a lot of these interviews together. This is the first time I've ever heard you outright lie on camera, and you should not do it.
JANE HUME: This is the first time you've demonstrated such incompetence, Clare.
CLARE O'NEIL: We owe each other better than that, and we know the Australian people ‑ we owe the Australian people better than that, Jane, I'm really disappointed in in this.
JANE HUME: You owe the Australian people an apology.
NATALIE BARR: Well, look, you know what ‑
CLARE O'NEIL: Let's just believe the facts of the case here ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: ‑‑ you know what, ladies, it's really difficult ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ believe the facts of the case here, and the truth is ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: ‑‑ sitting in the middle, because I'm representing the Australian people, and you're saying one thing, and you're saying the other thing, and we don't know what's happening.
CLARE O'NEIL: Yeah, well, one of us is telling the truth and one of us is not, Nat.
NATALIE BARR: Exactly.
JANE HUME: That's not true. That's not true.
CLARE O'NEIL: Jane knows, and I know that ‑‑
JANE HUME: You can blame anybody else, Clare, but this is on you.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ that when the Australian High Court ‑‑
JANE HUME: You botched this, you botched this.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ gives a decision to our government ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Okay ‑‑
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ when the High Court gives an order to the government, the government must follow that order; any grade 6 student can tell you that. Now Jane may think it's optional for politicians like herself to follow the law. I know that not to be the case.
The High Court of Australia ordered this, we must follow their ruling, and the work of the Parliament ‑‑
JANE HUME: Why were you not prepared for this?
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ is for people like Jane to stop playing politics ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: Clare, one more ‑‑
JANE HUME: You are scrambling.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ stop playing politics, and come into the parliament, work with us to help protect the Australian community.
JANE HUME: You should have been prepared. You took your eye off the ball; you owe Australians an apology.
NATALIE BARR: It's no use both of us speaking at the same time. Clare, one more question. Do you know where this detainee is that got away? Any idea where he is?
CLARE O'NEIL: That is in the hands of police now, that is in the hands of police now, Nat, and can I say ‑‑
JANE HUME: That's not good enough.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ the Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force are amazing people; they've done an exceptional job ‑‑
NATALIE BARR: So that's a no.
CLARE O'NEIL: ‑‑ here and I stand behind their work completely.
NATALIE BARR: He's still on the run?
CLARE O'NEIL: I've got full confidence in the police.
NATALIE BARR: So that's a no.
JANE HUME: You put Australians at risk, Clare, that's on you.
NATALIE BARR: So he's out there somewhere.
CLARE O'NEIL: I've got full confidence in the police, and I just note for your listeners, Nat, that the Australian Parliament passed a law that puts really strict penalties on people who put in place this kind of conduct. It's been handed to police, and I've got great faith in their efforts.
NATALIE BARR: Okay. Well, let us know when you catch him. Okay. Well, you wonder why Australians don't know, because it's really hard to work out what on earth's happening. Thank you very much for trying to put your side.
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