It looks like the focus of questioning from the Coalition today will again be Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ handling of the release of immigration detainees following the NZYQ high court ruling.
The renewed scrutiny comes ahead of the High Court’s upcoming decision on an Iranian asylum seeker’s claim he should be released under the NZYQ decision,with a loss for the government potentially resulting in the release of further immigration detainees.
The Coalition’s immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan asked Giles:
The Solicitor-General told the High Court on 8 November,2023 that up to 340 people in long-term detention could be released as a result of the NZYQ case.
Is that the number of criminals that the government expects to release as referred to in its secret briefing to journalists on Friday?”
The mention of the secret briefing got a big reaction from the House. Giles started his response with a few jokes:
I thank the shadow minister for this question and his apparent new-found interest in legal matters. Today is 105 days since we offered a legal briefing on the issues going before this. 105 days,we are still counting,Mr Speaker.
Now,at the time it was offered,they were too busy,to be fair. One of the shadow ministers was at Harvard on a study tour,another one could not escape the Sky studios,another was at the races. Now,as for the 104 days since then,I don’t know what they’ve been doing.”
After a relevance point of order,Giles gave this answer:
He seems well acquainted with his secret briefing. I would encourage him to be briefed on the real issues,so that he can make a constructive contribution to community safety. That he chooses not to do,is inexplicable other than if he wants to retain some licence to go free range on issues that he knows he’s in the wrong on.
I can’t get into the details of cases before the High Court. I won’t. But I will say this – the government believes that these individuals,those who are not cooperating with their removal,should be removed from Australia as a priority and if,while they are not,they should remain in immigration detention.
This is the position that was successfully defended before the Federal Court. We will be vigorously defending this before the High Court.”