2004‑2005‑2006

The Parliament of the

Commonwealth of Australia

THE SENATE

Presented and read a first time

Migration Legislation Amendment (End of Mandatory Detention) Bill 2006

No.      , 2006

(Senator Bartlett)

A Bill for an Act to end the mandatory detention of visa applicants and asylum seekers, and for related purposes

Contents

1............ Short title............................................................................................ 1

2............ Commencement.................................................................................. 1

3............ Schedule(s).......................................................................................... 1

Schedule 1—Amendment of the Migration Act 1958                                         2

A Bill for an Act to end the mandatory detention of visa applicants and asylum seekers, and for related purposes

The Parliament of Australia enacts:

1  Short title

                   This Act may be cited as the Migration Legislation Amendment (End of Mandatory Detention) Act 2006.

2  Commencement

                   This Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

3  Schedule(s)

                   Each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1—Amendment of the Migration Act 1958

1  After section 189

Insert:

189A  Conditions of arrest

             (1)  An officer who has detained a person under section 189 must, as soon as practicable, take the person before a magistrate for a hearing and action in accordance with subsection (2).

             (2)  If the magistrate is satisfied that the person is a person to whom section 189 applies, and that his or her continued detention is, in all the circumstances, appropriate, the magistrate may issue a warrant:

                     (a)  authorising the officer to convey the person to a detention centre established under this Act; and

                     (b)  directing that the person, having been conveyed to that place in accordance with the warrant, be detained there until:

                              (i)  the person is released from detention pursuant to paragraph 196(1)(c); or

                             (ii)  a date specified in the warrant.

             (3)  To avoid doubt, section 189 does not apply to a person once he or she has been released from detention under this section.

2  Subsection 196(3)

Repeal the subsection.