Subjects: Detainee charged with child exploitation offences, prohibiting items legislation, medevac legislation
RAY HADLEY: An asylum seeker being housed at Kangaroo Point, which has been the focus of months of protest in Brisbane, has been charged with possessing child abuse material. Now, I’ve spoken about these protests by the Greens Councillor Jonathan Sri a number of times. Sri and his mates have caused traffic chaos in and around Kangaroo Point and the CBD since March, calling for 120 men at the facility – all of whom brought to Australia under the medevac law – to be freed. The most recent protest held on Tuesday - which I reported – about 60 protesters marched through the streets of Brisbane to the Immigration Department on Adelaide Street.
Yesterday, Queensland Police and Border Force officials searched the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel and Apartments and seized the electronic devices of one of the male – they call them asylum seekers, they are illegal immigrants. The detainee was charged with possessing child abuse material and then distributing. He’ll face Brisbane Magistrates Court next month.
Alan Tudge is the Acting Minister for Immigration. He’s on the line. Minister, good morning.
ALAN TUDGE: Good morning, Ray.
RAY HADLEY: You've been left this mess by the Labor Party and others who foisted Medevac upon you, and they should hang their heads collectively in shame.
ALAN TUDGE: Well they passed this legislation - we did not support it, as you know - and in the process almost 200 men came out from Papua New Guinea and Nauru, ostensibly for medical treatment. But of course when they're here it's very difficult to return them, and that was always the intent of the legislation - it was always to be seen as a backdoor way of getting people into Australia.
Now we're in that situation as you point out, where one of the individuals has been charged with distributing child exploitation materials - a very serious offence, an abhorrent offence - and he's been taken into custody. What it does raise though, Ray, and I think we might've discussed this in the past, is the powers which the Australian Border Force commissioners have, who actually operate these facilities. At the moment, they can literally see a man using his mobile phone to distribute child exploitation materials but have no powers to be able to remove that mobile phone. They have to call the police in and that can take, in this instance it took 24 hours. Same if they see drug use, or people holding drugs - no powers to seize them. And we're trying to change those laws but of course Labor and the Greens are blocking this as well.
RAY HADLEY: I mean, that's a very, very, very salient point. So you're saying if the ABF - who were in control of this facility - see someone breaking the law, as this bloke allegedly has done, they have no powers of arrest? The best they can do is call the Queensland coppers in and say, look, we've seen this, you better have a look and see what you can do, and then it moves from there?
ALAN TUDGE: That's exactly right. So, we have actually had instances where people are using their mobile phones to harass their former victims from immigration detention centres, and Border Force has no capacity to take that mobile phone off them. We've seen literally people with drugs in their hands, and no capacity to seize those drugs.
So, this is ridiculous and I'm trying to change the law to give that power to the Border Force Commissioners. Because, you know, this person who was arrested yesterday, Ray, it was 24 hours between the time the police were notified and when the police came to arrest the individual for those very serious allegations. Now, how much material had he been circulating in those 24 hours? Or allegedly circulating in those 24 hours? We just don't know.
So, we've got to have those powers, it's just got to be reasonable. And I cannot understand why the Labor party and the Greens want these type of people to be able to have their mobile phones which become the tool to be able to do some of these activities.
RAY HADLEY: Well at the end of the day, I mean, you're wasting your breath talking about the Greens - they're a law unto themselves, and they will have no capacity. But surely Anthony Albanese - a reasonable and decent person - must realise where he finds himself at the moment in relation to these people? He can't simply turn his back and say: “oh no, we won't support this legislation.” He has to support the legislation, surely to goodness. Now, just on the 120
ALAN TUDGE: No, well they're not. They're not, Ray.
RAY HADLEY: Yeah. Well, I'm appealing to him…
ALAN TUDGE: I mean it's been through a Senate inquiry now, and they should because, you know what people don't understand these days, in our immigration detention facilities, Ray, 70 per cent of the people are there because they're being evicted from the country for serious criminal activity - 70 percent cent. And you know, that’s some murderers, some rapists, some child exploitation spreaders. We must have the ability to be able to seize their mobile phones, to seize drugs, to seize other things like that when they are witnessed. They'll still have access to a landline by the way, they'll still have access to the internet at the shared computers. But when there's reasonable suspicion, the Australian Border Force Officers must be able to take action, in my view.
RAY HADLEY: Okay. This bloke, that you say at the start of our conversation, he's in custody. Has he been refused bail? Or where is he? Is he back in Kangaroo Point? Or what's happening with him?
ALAN TUDGE: So, at the moment he's been shifted from the Kangaroo Point facility to a more secure immigration detention facility which is still in Brisbane - that houses about 200 men - is my understanding. And from there then he'll obviously go to the Magistrates Court in about a month's time. Should he be found guilty of such an offence, then there's a high likelihood he'll end up in prison.
RAY HADLEY: So what's the future for the 119? And why are they not elsewhere? Why are they being housed at great expense at a hotel at Kangaroo Point, on the other side of Story Bridge? Why are they there?
ALAN TUDGE: Well the answer is, they're there because of the Labor-Green legislation and under that, any two doctors in the country, without even seeing the individuals, were able to say that a person from Nauru or Papua New Guinea had to come into the country to get medical treatment. So, that's what that legislation said, which we didn't support. Now, a third of the people have come here and have actually refused medical treatment despite ostensibly coming out for that particular purpose.
Now that they're here, Ray, they've got three options. One option is if they're found not to be a refugee - and about a quarter of them have had that declaration - they should return to their home country. For the rest, they should either return to Papua New Guinea and Nauru, or in some cases they'll have the option to be settled in the United States. But I mean, as you know, our position, in terms of people who arrive by boat, is crystal clear, we have a very firm position that you can't settle in Australia if you arrive unlawfully by boat - and that's been a critical part of our deterrence.
RAY HADLEY: Well, let's see how it plays out. I appreciate all the information you supplied and I just - I despair that we still have people supporting such people as they have in Brisbane. Thanks very much, Minister, I appreciate talking to you.
ALAN TUDGE: Thanks very much, Ray.
RAY HADLEY: Alan Tudge, the Acting Immigration Minister.
