TRANSCRIPT
It's been nearly a month since the High Court of Australia ruled against indefinite detention in the landmark case involving a convicted sex offender from Myanmar.
Since then, 148 people have been released into the community, including at least three convicted murderers and several sex offenders.
Some others had been found guilty of minor crimes in their home country and some have never been convicted of a crime.
Following the High Court decision, Labor scrambled to pass emergency laws, putting those released under a night-time curfew and forcing them to wear tracking bracelets.
Federal cabinet met on Monday to finalise more amendments aimed at strengthening the laws further.
It came as Foreign Minister Penny Wong was forced to again defend the government's handling of High Court case, under questioning from the Opposition in the Senate.
"These individuals have not been released because the government made a determination that they had to be released. These people are being released as a consequence of the High Court decision which struck down laws that you in place. Not the first set of laws of yours that they have struck down."
Under the new amendments, the government can apply to the courts to place the worst offenders under a preventative detention order, putting them back behind bars.
But the government must show the person poses an unacceptable risk to the community that cannot be managed by other visa conditions.
The detainee would have had to be charged for a crime carrying at least a seven-year sentence.
And the order will only last three years and must be reapplied for annually after that.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he supports preventative detention but wants to work with the government to ensure the changes are constitutionally sound.
"We will support bills that keep Australians safe, but we’re not going to have a situation where the government just at the last minute drafts these bills overnight. There is always an inadequacy. They don’t have the desire to think outside the box when it comes to keeping Australians safe."
It's not known how many of the released detainees the preventative detention orders would apply to.
Mr Dutton suggests only a handful could actually be affected by Labor's proposed changes.
"The regime that the government is providing might have application to two or three or four people. That's it. So the other 142 people that they've unnecessarily released into the community now have the potential to cause harm, and I think the Australian public are rightly very angry about it."
Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie told Sky News strengthening the laws were a matter of urgency.
"We are still going through those new laws but certainty something needs to be done this week. I would ask that the two grown up leaders out there would actually get to the table and get this sorted, because if they don't get this sorted, they will be held responsible if anything happens to the safety of Australians over the Christmas holiday period."
But Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has accused the government of whipping up fear and vilifying refugees and migrants, in its response to the High Court decision.
The new legislation will be introduced into parliament on Wednesday.
