The Greens today voted against the continuation of preventative detention orders.
We support preventative policing, but these detention orders are not needed to protect us. Police have existing tools to prevent terrorist acts that do not undermine the fundamental principles of our rule of law.
It’s an extraordinary infringement of our rights for people to be imprisoned for up to 14 days without being charged on the basis of a suspicion. Preventative detention orders have only been used in four instances across Australia in the past ten years.
If police have reasonable suspicions that someone may be planning a terrorist act then they can charge them.
The Greens put up amendments to reduce the sunset period for this legislation from ten to five years and to require that police operating procedures be approved by the Attorney-General. These were not supported by the Liberal and Labor parties.
Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Justice spokesperson
