Submission to the Migration Amendment (Detention Reform and Procedural Fairness) Bill 2010

This submission reviews and comments on the Migration Amendment (Detention Reform and Procedural Fairness) Bill 2010. PIAC welcomes this Bill, seeing it as a significant step towards Australia processing asylum seekers in a humane and timely fashion, which is in line with both our international obligations and the rule of law. The Bill achieves this by repealing the excision of part of Australian territory from Australia’s migration zone, ending long term detention and ensuring detention is used only as a measure of last resort. Importantly the bill also restores asylum seeker’s rights to procedural fairness and introduces a system of judicial review of detention beyond 30 days. PIAC believes these changes would make the Migration Act fairer and more efficient, treating all applicants as equal under the law, and respecting the rights of the individual and the right to procedural fairness.