Comment on Bills Targeting Refugees and People Seeking Asylum

This week the Federal Labor Government is trying to push through unprecedented and unprincipled laws without due process and scrutiny. These abhorrent laws target people solely on their visa status and will devastate individuals, families and communities across generations. If passed they will cause irreversible harm.

If enacted, the Government will be allowed to:

• Pay unnamed 3rd countries to accept people for deportation, where they may be locked up, subjected to violence or other severe harm, or refouled to persecution – and the Government has absolved itself and those countries of accountability for harms done to people and families in the process;
• Withdraw refugee status, no matter how long ago it was granted, exposing people to insecurity and refoulement;
• Breach people’s privacy in unprecedented ways that do not align with fundamental principles of justice and may lead to serious harm;
• Re-impose brutal visa conditions the High Court of Australia just this month described as ‘unjustifiable’ and found were unconstitutional;
• Re-detain people, potentially indefinitely, who have been released after years of unconstitutional detention and subjected to repeated infringements of their basic human rights;
• Ban access to critical everyday items like mobile phones in Australia’s notorious immigration detention facilities, and allow invasive and degrading strip searches and other surveillance, preventing access to justice and scrutiny of these facilities;
• Ban people from as-yet unnamed countries from entering Australia; and
• Force people to cooperate with their own deportation to harm or face jail.

Many of the people targeted have lived in Australia since their childhood. This is their home, and they are entitled to equality before the law, safety and dignity like any other person. Treating them differently from others in Australia is indefensible. 

These laws will destroy people’s lives. But the effects are far broader, causing intergenerational harm, permanently separating families, sending strong messages of exclusion to people without citizenship, and placing in jeopardy the multicultural fabric of the Australian community for years to come. The laws will undermine the rule of law and the separation of powers, and set a disturbing precedent for lawmaking without adequate oversight or detail. The Government is acting out of political expediency, bereft of principle.

Expert bodies, including Liberty Victoria, have resoundingly condemned the Bills. They must be withdrawn without delay.

Call your Senators urgently to tell them the Bills are unacceptable and unprincipled, and that lawmaking of this kind will not be tolerated by the Australian community.