The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) thanks the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for its invitation to make a submission concerning the Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019.
Recommendation: All three proposals under the Bill should be condemned, and the Bill itself should not be passed.
The Migration Amendment (Repairing Medical Transfers) Bill 2019 (the Bill) does three things:
1. It repeals the provisions that were inserted into the Migration Act (the Act) by Schedule 6 of the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Act 2019 (the medical transfer provisions).
2. It will also mean that the Minister will have power to prevent more people, who may never have been convicted of a crime, from being brought from offshore detention to Australia.
3. It will require that a person who has been brought to Australia under the medical transfer provisions be sent back to a regional processing country once the person no longer needs to be in Australia for the purpose for which they were brought here, whether or not that purpose has been achieved.
None of these outcomes are at all acceptable. The Bill should be rejected.
