Detention Debt Controvesy

Australia's policy of mandatory detention of people found to be unlawfully present here is widely known. However, it is not so well known that people who are detained are required to pay the costs of their own detention at the rate of $125/day. Needless to say (in a slow moving bureacracy) many detainees end up with debts of thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of dollars.

The government introduced the Migration Amendment (Abolishing Detention Debt) Bill 2009 into parliament in March and it was debated in the lower house this week. It is opposition policy to oppose the bill because it's abolition will be one less deterrent for people smugglers.

Unfortunately for the opposition, there are some dissenters in its ranks with a number of MP's threatening to cross the floor and vote with the government. These are quite extraordinary times with one MP saying the policy was "cruel and contrary to Australia's best values".

Another said he was ashamed of being a member of the parliament that had introduced the policy 17 years ago saying: "God forgive me that I was part of the parliament that did that, that caused so much distress for so many families over such a long period of time" and "it was wrong in the Hawke years, it was wrong in the Howard years and the wrong will be righted today."

Strong comments and some indication that it's not only the government that wants a more compassionate immigration system.

Photo used under creative commons licence