Borders Erected around Unlimited Right to Detain

Susan Harris Rimmer, The Australia Institute

Abstract

Fourteen years after the federal ALP introduced the current legal basis of detention, Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans has outlined the new approach to detention agreed by the Rudd Labor Government. In essence it has committed itself to seven ''values'', the first being that mandatory detention remains an ''essential component of strong border control''. But the second value sets out the categories of those to whom mandatory detention will apply. They are: all arrivals for health, identity and security checks, and to them only for a short time; people who present an unacceptable risk to the community; and people who refuse to comply with visa conditions. The third value takes the Coalition ''rebel'' reforms on children in detention further by placing an outright prohibition on the practice.