By Fergus Hunter
Labor says it cannot properly consider legislation allowing the ongoing detention of "high-risk terrorist offenders" until the government guarantees that outgoing Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson provided advice on the final version.
Following an allegedly ignored request to Attorney-General George Brandis, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has written to the chairman of the parliamentary committee considering the legislation, "seeking clarification that the Solicitor-General had been given the opportunity to advise" on its constitutionality.
Mr Gleeson resigned on Monday, describing his relationship with Senator Brandis as "irretrievably broken" amid an ongoing dispute over a legal directive issued by the Attorney-General giving him control over ministerial and departmental access to the Solicitor-General's independent advice.
"While Senator Brandis has stated that the Solicitor-General advised on an 'original draft' of the bill, I believe the committee needs absolute clarity on a matter of this magnitude," Mr Dreyfus wrote to the chairman of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, Michael Sukkar.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus Mark Dreyfus has written to the chairman of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
"More than a week later I have not received a response, despite raising the matter with Senator Brandis's representative in the lower house, Michael Keenan, on 19 October."
Mr Sukkar told Fairfax Media he would be responding to the letter and strongly believed the "committee's review of this important legislation should be conducted in a professional and bipartisan manner", as had previously been the approach.
"This matter is too important to be played out in the media for partisan political purposes, so I will not be commenting further at this time," he said.
Mr Dreyfus said Labor continued to approach national security matters in a bipartisan way but needed assurance that these laws would withstand a High Court challenge as several submissions to the committee had "raised potential constitutional issues".
The Criminal Code Amendment (High Risk Terrorist Offenders) Bill 2016 would keep convicted terrorists in prison beyond the expiry of their sentence if is deemed necessary to prevent any harm to the community.
Some submissions to the inquiry, including from Human Rights Watch and Civil Liberties Australia, have expressed concerns about the legislation, arguing it breaches human rights, needs to be more targeted, should be subject to a full court trial and could increase the risk of radicalising terrorists in detention.
Last week, Mr Gleeson told the inquiry into his legal feud with the Attorney-General that his was misrepresented regarding his advice on separate citizenship legislation.
"That legislation is now likely to be tested in the High Court. We are simply seeking to avoid a similar situation with this current bill," Mr Dreyfus said of the "unacceptable" state of affairs.