Solitary confinement will cost you extra
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“Australia is the only country in the world which charges innocent people the cost of locking them up,” Julian Burnside QC has told Crikey. As reported in Crikey yesterday, the Australian Government is currently chasing debts from 386 former detainees that add up to a total of almost 8 million dollars. The debts accrued include charges for accommodation in detention centres, food and the cost of transporting detainees to different locations. Along with these standard costs, solitary confinement for former detainees is separately billed, Burnside told Crikey, with GST added to the final balance. “A few years ago a detainee took a test case to the Federal Court challenging the constitutional validity of charging innocent detainees the cost of their own detention,” says Burnside. ”The challenge lost. He was represented by pro bono lawyers. The Government is now chasing him not only for the detention costs ($29k) but also for the government’s legal costs ($31k).” “Several detainees have received bills for up to $250k. A man recently deported received a bill for $512k. One bloke now living in Ballarat is paying off his detention debt at $100 per month. It will take him 170 years to clear it,” says Burnside. According to DIAC spokesperson Sandi Logan, the table below shows immigration related debt waivers and write-offs for the year ended 30 June 2007:
*detention debts might not have accrued in the same year. The table below shows immigration related debt waivers and write-offs for the year ended 30 June 2008:
*Detention debts might not have accrued in the same year. In April of this year Commonwealth Ombudsman Professor John McMillan released a report on DIAC’s Administration of Detention Debt Waiver and Write-off. The report stated:
The report made several recommendations, including Recommendation 3:
And Recommendation 4:
Crikey asked Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner’s office this morning that given that the power to waive debts to the Commonwealth rests with the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and his delegate, would the Minister consider waiving or suspending Kasian Wililo’s debt? Nardia Dazkiw, spokesperson for Minister Tanner responded:
Tanner’s spokesperson told Crikey that there is no intention to review section 47 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act. ”It should be noted that under section 47 agencies have significant discretion to determine whether a debt is not economical to pursue.” “Responsibility for the detention debt recovery scheme rests with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans,” Tanner’s office told Crikey. Crikey also asked that given (according to DIAC) an application for waiver of a debt will only be successful “where it is found that there is a moral obligation on the Commonwealth to waive the debt”, did the Minister believe that there is a moral obligation in Mr Wililo’s case? “The Finance Minister or his delegate will make a decision under section 34 of the FMA Act based on the merits of the case as established by the claimant. Policy guidelines for the operation of waiver of debt are provided by Finance Circular No.2006/05 — Discretionary Compensation Mechanisms,” said Tanner’s office. |
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8 Comments
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews infamously said of Barack Obama during live coverage of one of his speeches that he “felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often”
Are we witnessing another great moment in Australian journalism?
How’s your leg Soph ?
I have just heard on the radio that the Australian government will send 12 million dollars as an aid to…Afghanistan, where many of our refugees came from. Just wondering whether this generous aid is somehow related to the charges for our 5 star concentration camps so we can compensate the country of Afghanistan for having supplied us with refugees.
This is a stain on the national psyche. Couln’t some fund be organized, with say Julian Burnside as it titular head, so that ordinary Australians could contribute, hold chook raffles, whatever, to contribue on a pro rata basis to these seriously maltreated people. It might make both the givers and the recipients feel better themselves as residents in this reputedly fair-go society. Just tell me where to send my first donation.
Oh dear indeed……..Emily.
Do Kasian a favour. Say no more. Get independent legal advice.
I wonder if Cornelia got a bill before she got her compensation and why haven’t Crikey yet written a word about the brutality of her “removal” from Baxter?
Joining the conspiracy of silence hoping that no-one will remember the nightmare we saw?
Sadly this is another relic of the appalling Gerry Hand.
Kasian and Emily have kept quiet for a long time. It dosent seem like a good idea any more.
Kasian was traumatised during his time in detention. That this young man and others have suffered so much as a consequence of Australia’s politically motivated detention regime is bad enough but to be asked to pay for it is both sickening and absurd.
I fail to see the logic of just how the imposition of this bill and the pursuing of a young family struggling to put deep trauma behind them will enrich the Australian Community.
oh dear,
kasian spent months in solitary confinement, or “Red One”, “Management” or whatever name they gave it at the time
does that mean we will be getting a seperate bill for that too?
What a bureaucratic response from Tanner’s Office. The whole regime of charging refugees for their detention should be abolished. This is user pays gone mad!! Repeal S209, and 210 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). S 210 imposes a liabilty on some refugees who have been deported for god’s sake!! No doubt put there by the Howard Government to dissuade those persons from seeking to return to Australia ever again. There are many, many people who voted for the Rudd Government in the hope that all this madness was over and the Government are making a big mistake if they think they can get away with retaining these provision to mollify the ex One Nation supporters.