A few weeks ago, Peter Dutton decided to release dozens of refugees who had been held in Melbourne hotel rooms for more than a year because it was “cheaper for people to be in the community than it is to be at a hotel or for us to be paying for them to be in detention.”
What a revelation.
Dutton told 2GB radio the released men had been assessed as not being a threat.
Which is a turnaround from his fearmongering 2 years ago that the medevac bill, allowing these refugees to receive medical treatment on mainland Australia, would lead to “Alleged murderers, rapists and paedophiles” coming to Australia.
Speaking of not being a threat, another court decision will be made today about the ongoing detention of the Biloela family.
Priya, Nades, and their Australian-born daughters, Kopika, five, and Tharunicaa, three, were taken from their home in Queensland and moved to Melbourne in March 2018 and have been detained on Christmas Island since August 2019.
Department figures provided to the Senate estimates process last month show keeping the family detained has cost $1.4m in the past year.
The case today is the government appealing a previous ruling against them in which they were ordered to pay costs. The legal bill to keep this family detained must be astronomical.
As we await the decision about the Tamil family, Foreign Minister Marise Payne is, once again, admonishing China.
Speaking at a video conference organised by the Canadian government this morning, Payne said Australia would “hold countries to account for their international commitments and their obligation to comply with international laws and practices”.
“The practice of arbitrary detention is against international law. States must uphold all of their international human rights obligations, and that includes those owed to foreign and dual nationals within their jurisdictions …”
I think you may be leaving yourself wide open there Marise.
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