According to Labor sources who spoke to this masthead on the condition of anonymity, Laxale was the only MP to speak up with concerns over the bill during Tuesday’s caucus meeting. Laxale, who also represents an Iranian community and holds the metropolitan Sydney seat by a margin of less than 1 per cent, declined to comment when contacted.
Comment has been sought from Giles, who told the caucus meeting there were significant safeguards contained in the bill.
Liberal MP Keith Wolahan said communities should be heard during a Senate inquiry.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
An open letter released by cultural groups including the Australian Iranian Community Alliance, AusIran, and Woman Life Freedom Australia, said November’s High Court decision had given Australia an opportunity to overhaul a migration system that had cost people years of their lives.
“Instead, the government’s chaotic and punitive response will define its term, but for very different reasons,” the letter reads. “We urge the government to repeal this proposed bill and seek a more humane and considered approach to immigration.”
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One MP who declined to be named said they understood the “stick approach” in threatening to block entire nationalities unless their government overturned their own repatriation policy. “But don’t stop families seeing each other over Christmas because they’re from a country run by a delinquent fringe regime.”
Sources said several MPs had also raised concerns over the speed of the bill’s passage, with one describing the process as arrogant.
Another source said: “The first rule of using a battering ram is making sure it goes through the wall.”
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference in Muswellbrook, NSW, on Thursday that parliament had been given time to scrutinise the bill.
“The Coalition voted for the policy in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, and they voted about the politics of the issue with the Greens Party on Wednesday,” he said, adding the opposition had received a full briefing and a two-hour committee hearing to grill public servants about the bill on Tuesday.
“To be very clear, this isn’t about refugees, this is about people who have not been shown to have any right to be in Australia, be it refugees or be it family reunion status or anything or any other measures,” he said.
But Opposition Leader Peter Dutton described the process as “absurd”, adding a Senate inquiry was now needed after Home Affairs officials were unable to convince opposition and crossbench senators of the bill’s urgency this week.
“I think the longer inquiry now will answer some of the questions that the officials and the ministers refused to answer initially, and we’ll be in a better position to know whether this is going to start boats again or not,” Dutton told 2GB radio host Ray Hadley on Thursday.
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During another parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday night, Home Affairs official Michael Thomas revealed 73 of the 152 people released as a result of last year’s High Court decision were not wearing electronic monitoring ankle bracelets, one of the harsh conditions applied to the cohort after their release.
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, standing in for O’Neil in the hearing, said the decision to remove an ankle bracelet was based on the advice of a board of experts in the justice system that was formed to deal with the cohort.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.