Shadow Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says the Albanese government is “scrambling” with a “chaotic” response to the to the High Court’s ruling as they are expected to introduce their preventative detention bill on Wednesday.
The High Court’s ruling that indefinite detention was unlawful allowed for the release of 93 people, including three murderers and several sex offenders.
The bill will enable the government to ask a court to put a former detainee in prison for up to three years if they have been convicted of a violent or sexual crime, attracting a maximum sentence of at least seven years.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton on Monday claimed the government’s legislation will only apply to four people.
“We do have a number of questions about that legislation,” Mr Fletcher told Sky News Australia.
“One of the questions is the strategy here is that it will be state and territory courts within which the application for an order will be made.
“One of these orders, which if granted, would mean that the person who had been released from immigration detention would either go into a new form of detention or would be subject to ongoing supervision.
“In our view, there’s a real question as to whether there has been adequate consultation with the state and territory authorities in the development of this legislation.”
