Detainee disaster: Clare O’Neil backtracks on calls to resign as released criminal asylum seekers face new charges after being released – including convicted pedophile who allegedly contacted children

Home Secretary Clare O’Neil has hit back at calls for her resignation from opposition after three asylum seekers, including registered sex offenders, were arrested following their release following a landmark Supreme Court decision.

The Supreme Court ruled on November 8 that indefinite immigration detention is not constitutional if there is “no realistic prospect” that deportation “becomes practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

The decision resulted in the release of at least 148 people – including several dangerous criminals – whose detention met this condition.

O’Neil was confronted by Sunrise presenter Monique Wright, who asked: ‘You’ve said on this program that your job is to keep Australians safe.

‘Now three detainees have been rearrested on new charges. Should you resign, as the coalition says?

They include Afghan refugee Aliyawar Yawari, 65, who was accused of indecently assaulting a woman at a hotel in South Australia.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali Nadari, 45, has been charged with possession of cannabis in New South Wales.

Then on Monday, 33-year-old Emran Dad, a registered pedophile sex offender and leader of a child exploitation gang, was arrested in Dandenong, southeast of Melbourne, for allegedly contacting minors on social media and breaching his reporting obligations.

O’Neil hit back, saying she is doing everything she can to protect the community.

‘If it had been up to me, all these people would never have been released from detention. If it were up to me and I had the power, all these people would immediately end up back behind bars.’

Wright continued to put further pressure on the minister.

“Claire, in retrospect, two out of three inmates arrested are sex predators.

‘Looking back now, do you wish you were on the front foot? “Could you have done something about this earlier and tried to get these laws through as a preventive measure?”

O’Neil responded, “Some of these are very bad people who have done very bad things, and that’s exactly why I would do that, when I had the power to keep them in custody.”

“I say again to you, your viewers: If I had any legal power to put these people back behind bars, I would. I have three children.

‘Like I want these people walking on the street. The government’s job is to ensure that we can provide ways to protect the community within the new laws set out by the High Court of Australia. That’s exactly what we do.’

Yesterday, O’Neil took steps to introduce a regime of preventive detention usually reserved for terrorists.

The preventive detention laws were passed by the Senate on Tuesday evening and will be brought to the House of Representatives for debate later on Wednesday.

But Coalition Senator Jane Hume said the government should have had legislation in place before the High Court ruling so it was ready to act once the ruling was made to prevent the release of detainees.

“First of all, you would have been much better off submitting to the Supreme Court, and you messed up.

‘Then you released all those prisoners, even though you were told to release one. You didn’t wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling. You then failed to take the pre-trial detention measures that you could have taken months ago.

“Instead you blamed your department, and the Supreme Court. You blamed the Coalition, you blamed Peter Dutton. But this is up to you.

“But this is your business,” she told the minister.

“You owe the Australian community an apology and if you are a responsible minister you would also tender your resignation. This is now a test for the Prime Minister. He should fire you.”

Ms O’Neil hit back, saying she was taking responsibility “at this time” on live TV.

“I’m not sure what you could possibly be complaining about,” she said to Mrs. Hume.

‘We are currently actively conducting a political debate. I will talk to you about these issues and be accountable for them.”

The government says it was hampered by the Supreme Court’s decision, which mandated the release of detainees in the same situation as the original complainant, NZYQ.

Legislation to detain the entire cohort could not have been introduced because of the ruling, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said as he offered to show the opposition legal advice from the Solicitor General.

“Following the decision of the Supreme Court and the reasons given in the NZYQ case, it is not legally possible to enact legislation requiring the detention of all persons affected by NZYQ for reasons of community security,” he wrote in a letter published in the Senate was submitted.

Any delay in the release of affected prisoners could expose the government and individual officials to legal claims of false imprisonment, he added.

The opposition is calling for stricter demands from ministers who approved the release of detainees, calling for an explanation of why they should be released.

Opposition Chancellor of the Exchequer Jane Hume (pictured), who claimed Ms O’Neil had been ‘rocked to the ground’ as a result of the landmark Supreme Court ruling