Court applications to lock up freed immigration detainees who have reoffended should be made as soon as possible, the prime minister says.
Anthony Albanese has stared down opposition calls to sack Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil after an elderly Perth couple was allegedly assaulted by a freed detainee during a home invasion.
The detainee, 43, was one of 154 people released from immigration detention in November after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful.
Mr Albanese said the court applications to re-detain offenders should be made as a “matter of urgency”.
“What you want to make sure … (is) that an application does succeed,” he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
“I want to see applications done as soon as possible, and I want to see them succeed.”
The government has been given the power to apply to put a detainee back behind bars even if they have not committed a crime, if they are ruled to be too high a risk to community safety.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called for the sacking of Mr Giles and Ms O’Neil, saying they have failed to keep Australians safe following the High Court ruling.
The prime minister has said they will continue in their roles.
But Mr Dutton told Adelaide radio 5AA not enough steps were being taken to ensure the freed detainees were behind bars.
“These are serious criminals and they’re non-citizens, they should be on a plane back to their country of origin,” he said.
“Instead, they’re out committing more crimes against Australian citizens, and I think the PM’s got a huge problem of his own making.”
Earlier, Ms O’Neil said calls for her resignation were “disappointing”.
“If I had this simple power to put (the alleged offender) back into detention, I would do it in a heartbeat,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program.
“What I would like to see is for the opposition and the government to work together to manage a legal change made by the High Court of this country.”
Ms O’Neil expressed sympathy for the Perth couple following the assault and said steps were in place to monitor the released detainees.
“This particular individual and others like him were kept in immigration by our government, but the High Court of Australia made a decision last year which required us to remove those people from detention,” she said.
“The safest thing for the community is for that individual and others like him to be in immigration detention, and when I had the power to maintain the situation, I did, all these people were detained.”
Mr Giles, who also rejected resignation calls, offered to speak with the couple about the situation.
Noting he was limited in what he could say about a case before the court, Mr Giles said he had spoken to the WA police minister about the case.
The alleged offender is yet to enter a plea to any charges.
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