The Australian Senate has halted the proposed immigration bill, with suspicions that it was “rushed”. Image source: JJ Harrison. Via Wikimedia Commons.
The recent immigration bill, which will grant greater governmental power when managing the deportation of non-Australian citizens, has been stalled in the Senate.
The Senate Coalition voted alongside the crossbench and the Greens to block the bill and refer it to a legal committee.
Contrasting this, the Coalition in the House of Representatives has supported the bill, which some allege is motivated by a case that is currently before the High Court.
This case may see a collection of immigration detainees released into the community. In recent months, the government has responded to the release of 150 people from detention centres after a separate high court ruling.
The current High Course case that is suspected of being the cause for this legislation is set to be heard in April. The case will rule on the case of an Iranian man, who is referred to only as ASF17.
He is refusing to cooperate with authorities regarding his deportation, as he argues he would be “persecuted”.
Clare O’Neil, the Home Affairs Minister, has remarked that it was “bleedingly obvious” why the immigration legislation was rushed through to the Senate without providing detail.
“The ASF17 case does show it is important that we do have these powers, it’s not the only reason why we are doing this though,” stated Ms O’Neil.
“It is very important that the Australian government move towards running a more orderly migration system… whatever your political views might be it is categorically a fact that we arrived in office with a migration system fundamentally broken.”
While the coalition and Labour rapidly processed the bill in the House of Representatives, other members of parliament were less enthused.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has been critical of the legislation, stating she considered both parties were “trading in human suffering to score cheap political points in a pitiful race to the bottom”.
“Labor is trying to out-Dutton Mr Dutton, the very man who has dog-whistled himself to the top of the Liberal Party.
“This bill is an extraordinary expansion of ministerial powers, to the point where the Human Rights Law Centre have called the powers ‘god-like’.”
Another Greens senator, David Shoebridge, has derided the legislation as “a sham” and “transparent as a brick”.
A report from the Senate’s legal committee on the proposal will be delivered by 7 May, prior to the delivery of the Federal Budget.
