Proposed new laws would grant the power to block visas from countries that do not accept their citizens being involuntarily returned.
The government had hoped the laws, which would see asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal avenues face a jail sentence of up to five years if they did not co-operate with an attempt to deport them, would pass by the time parliament rose for the six week Easter break.The Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles held a terse 11-minute press conference after the coalition announcement.
“We have a government here trying to do something in the national interest and an opposition that chooses politics every day of the week … it is destructive and it needs to stop,” she said at Parliament on Wednesday alongside Immigration Minister Andrew Giles. “They couldn’t explain how many people this would affect. They couldn’t explain what the consequences of this would be for any upcoming High Court cases. They couldn’t explain how or when they would use this legislation or who would apply it to,” Senator Paterson said.
“It would be negligent of this Senate to pass this bill on the half-baked assurances, incomplete information,” he told the chamber. “If there is some urgent unforeseen need, the evidence which the government has not provided us in either hearing last night or in the briefings, then we are prepared to bring the parliament back to consider this legislation,” he said.“We will bring our senators and members back to pass this legislation if a genuinely urgent need does arise for it to be passed. But so far the government has provided no explanation of what that is.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)