The Coalition is set to help Labor pass a controversial migration bill allowing Australia to pay third countries to accept unlawful non-citizens, subject to a one-week inquiry that may recommend minor changes.
On Tuesday the opposition immigration spokesperson, Dan Tehan, indicated likely support by saying the opposition wants “to help and support the government keep the community safe”.
The bill was introduced on 8 November by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, in part to respond to the high court ruling that ankle bracelets and curfews imposed on people released from immigration detention are unlawful.
In addition to supporting regulations that re-impose those visa conditions, the bill gives authority to the Australian government to pay third countries to accept unlawful non-citizens on a removal pathway, allowing them to be re-detained if they refuse.
Those susceptible include: the more than 200 people on Bridging Visa R, released as a result of the high court ruling that indefinite detention is unlawful; 374 non-citizens in immigration detention; and those on general bridging visas granted so they can make “acceptable arrangements to depart Australia”.
Experts and the Greens estimated this includes thousands of people who have been refused protection visas with no merits review application afoot, people brought to Australia from offshore detention, and people whose protection visas were rejected by the fast-track method.
The bill also expands the power for the government to revisit protection findings, meaning people previously found to be refugees could be returned to their home country. It gives the government immunity from being sued by people harmed when deported.
The Greens’ immigration spokesperson, David Shoebridge, accused the government and opposition of “a Liberal-Labor stitch-up to bribe other countries to abuse people’s human rights for us”.
“Under this bill, thousands of people, many of whom have been here for years as an important part of the community, can be forcibly removed to a third country or sent to detention indefinitely,” he said.
Josephine Langbien, the associate legal director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said “every person has the same right to freedom, dignity and safety, regardless of visa status, but the Albanese government wants to pay other countries to warehouse refugees and migrants for the rest of their lives”.
“This will expand Australia’s disastrous offshore detention regime, under which people have died and suffered conditions amounting to torture,” she said.
“Despite multiple high court rulings, the government is intent on further punishing this small group of people – and potentially impacting thousands of others in the process.
“These proposed laws would rip people from their families and homes and prevent them from ever returning to their lives in the Australian community. Parliament must not allow this bill to become law.”
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre deputy chief executive, Jana Favero, said: “Any party that supports this bill is sending a clear message to some people in our community that they are not equal. This bill tells them that politicians in this country will introduce and support laws that punish people based simply on where they were born.”
The bill went to the Coalition party room on Tuesday and is likely to pass parliament after a one-week inquiry, with a public hearing to be held on Thursday.
The Albanese government also flagged amendments to its own bill in Labor caucus on Tuesday, although they are not yet public.
Tehan told the House of Representatives that the Coalition wants to “make sure there won’t be any unintended consequences” and wanted to make sure that the government “for once is actually getting it right”.
A home affairs department spokesperson said the bill would “provide the legislative framework to enable the department to agree on an arrangement for the removal of non-citizens who have exhausted all pathways to remain in Australia, and cannot be returned to the country from which they came”.
“It would not be appropriate to comment on individual third [country] reception arrangements,” the spokesperson said.
