Immigration Minister Tony Burke has been holding backroom talks with the opposition to strike a deal on an issue that has plagued his government since last year’s High Court ruling freed more than 200 immigration detainees into the community: what to do with people Australia doesn’t want but who can’t be deported.
The Albanese government has merged three bills to form an immigration package that allows it to put non-citizens back into detention once another country agrees to take them, and jail people for up to five years if they do not co-operate with moves to deport them.
But Labor’s agenda has alarmed human rights groups, who described it as draconian and discriminatory, while lawyers warn the planned laws will be hit with flurry of court challenges. Greens senator David Shoebridge said it was the “most extreme migration legislation since the White Australia policy”.