The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, today introduced a Bill to restore merits review through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for asylum seekers with adverse ASIO security assessments.
“The Bill is fundamentally about fairness,” Mr Wilkie said. “Currently asylum seekers are denied access to merits review by the AAT if they are the subject of an adverse security assessment.
“ASIO must be allowed to determine security risks, but to deprive asylum seekers of the right to have those assessments scrutinised is just part of the litany of attacks by this Government that target asylum seekers with punitive and cruel measures.
“The bottom line is that Australian citizens can challenge adverse ASIO security assessments but asylum seekers cannot. This is a clear statement by the Government that asylum seekers are second class human beings who don’t deserve their fundamental human rights.
“Moreover, besides being plain wrong, it’s also at odds with Australia’s obligations under international law. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the Refugee Convention, refugees should be afforded the right to question their detention and have it examined by an official judicial body.
“The current situation is simply discrimination. If there is a genuine security concern then the original adverse assessment will be upheld on review, and if there isn’t then innocent people are not arbitrarily detained.
“Australians have nothing to fear from this reform, and we must pass it as a compassionate and fortunate country which believes in equality before the law.”
Andrew Wilkie MP, Independent Member for Denison
