Opposition livid over High Court migration ruling

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Created on Monday, 08 October 2012 16:42

Written by Editorial staff

The shadow minister for immigration and citizenship has hit out at rulings from the High Court which seeks to overrule a decision by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to deny asylum seekers who are deemed security threats.

A Sri Lankan asylum seeker known as M47, who was denied a visa by ASIO after being deemed a security threat, will be having his application for an immigration visa reassessed. This then has placed a precedent which allows for 50 other similar cases of detained Sri Lankan asylum seekers to be reassessed. The High Court allowed this to happen as it deemed a section of the Migration Act was determined to be invalid.

M47 originally arrived on the Oceanic Viking back when Kevin Rudd was prime minister and was granted a visa which was subsequently revoked after an ASIO security check.

Opposition minister Scott Morrison told 2GB's Ray Hadley in Sydney that the government has failed and that the opposition must work with immigration minister Chris Bowen's department to fix any gaps in legislation.

He said that he will be working the coming weeks to ensure that gaps are fixed in the legislation and ensure that a full review of the Migration Act prevents any future challenge in the High Court such as this one.

Morrison said he hopes that this will be a catalyst for a broader review of the system and not just a stopgap, knee jerk reaction to the situation.

Shadow attorney general George Brandis has told New Limited that he believes this ruling will be detrimental to public safety as there will be no legislation to prevent individuals who pose a potential risk from entering the community.

He noted that the ruling made no mention of a time frame for release of detainees from detention facilities. He feels that should a time limit be imposed, the government would be forced to release detainees, regardless of their security status from ASIO.

The lawyer for M47, who successfully overturned the ASIO ruling, was also the lawyer who successfully brought down the Malaysian swap deal. This subsequently prompted calls for the sacking of those who gave minister Bowen advice about the deal.