Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

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MIGRATION LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (APPROPRIATE ACCESS TO DETENTION CENTRES) BILL 2006

                        Explanatory Memorandum

                                Senator Bartlett

   Migration Legislation Amendment (Appropriate Access to Detention
                           Centres) Bill 2006

The purpose of this Bill is to repeal the provisions introduced by the Migration
Legislation Amendment (Immigration Detainees) Act 2001 which introduced tighter
restrictions on access to detainees through increasing the powers of detention centre
providers as well as increasing penalties for detainees in line with offences in the
Criminal Code and in the Crimes Act, and return the situation to that which applied
prior to the passage of that Act. Given that immigration detainees have not been
convicted of any criminal offence, it is not believed appropriate for these penalties to
be equivalent to offences in the Criminal Code.