Teal MP Kylea Tink proposes bill for 90-day cap on immigration detention

Independent MP Kylea Tink is pushing a bill that would make it illegal for the Australian government to detain asylum-seekers for more than 90 days and to place any children in detention centres.

She is reintroducing the bill on Monday amid what she described as an alarming increase in the number of people being held for indefinite duration in expensive and secretive offshore facilities

The Migration Amendment (Limits on Immigration Detention) Bill 2024 amends the Migration Act 1958 to ensure Australia complies with global human rights obligations, she argues.

“In the current environment, we are still a nation that has one of the worst reputations globally in terms of meeting our international human rights obligations,” she told AAP.

“There is an expectation from the broader Australian population that we do accept that it’s not OK to hold people indefinitely and that it’s not OK for our government to hold children.”

“It’s a really abhorrent chapter in our nation’s history.”

Latest figures show the average time spent in Australian immigration detention centres is 565 days, substantially higher than countries such as Canada (30 days) and the United States (48 days).

There are over 900 people in immigration detention centres according to Department of Home Affairs figures.

In a landmark decision in November the High Court ruled that non-citizens could not be kept in indefinite immigration detention, leading to the release of some 150 detainees since.

Ms Tink’s bill clarifies that once a person has been held for 90 days, their detention can be extended by a further 28 days if deemed necessary as a last resort.

She said that is a practical solution for the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) to assess applications.

Ms Tink said no children should be placed in centres described by experts as “factories for producing mental illness”.

Other updates to the bill include the inclusion of offshore detention within its scope.

“We need to decide as a nation where we stand in terms of our humanitarian principles and we need to apply those consistently,” Ms Tink noted.

“We do not get to choose for whom we’re prepared to uphold human rights and when.”

Meanwhile, a 10,000-strong petition by the Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre will be presented in parliament calling for the immediate evacuation of nearly 140 people held in offshore detention.

Jana Favero, the centre’s Head of Systemic Change, said the Albanese government should urgently pass the bill as it aligns with the Labour party’s platform.

“Mandatory detention must be abolished, and time limits on detention is the first critical step towards this,” she said.