As observed by the Human Rights Law Centre, Australia has sent 1300 asylum seekers to Manus Island for ‘processing and resettlement’, but not one person has actually been processed and resettled. Asylum seekers have been left languishing in arbitrary detention in conditions the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Amnesty International have described as being inhumane and a breach of international law.
As the community contemplates the Victorian Government’s decision to, as Premier Denis Napthine puts it, have the Hoddle Street murderer Julian Knight “rot in jail”, it is worth looking at similar cases.
Approval of the Napthine government’s move to ensure the Auditor-General’s independence came today from Liberty Victoria.
Liberty President Jane Dixon SC said it was vital for the proper oversight of government to keep this office as independent as possible.
The State Services Authority had the power to investigate the Auditor-General. The authority is being replaced by a Public Sector Commission, which will be stripped of such a power.
Public confidence in the legal system is threatened by jamming people into jail while hiding a study of the State’s prison population, Liberty Victoria said today.
Liberty President Jane Dixon SC echoed the warning by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service that the crisis in prisons presents a perfect storm. “It is dangerous to Victorian prisoners and dangerous to the community,” she said.
