Voters to guide Lambie on Bill

A TASMANIAN senator is asking voters to guide her decision on an upcoming Bill and will have two weeks in isolation to go through the emailed responses.

Burnie-based Jacqui Lambie said she wanted people’s advice on her vote — which is expected to be crucial to getting the Bill over the line — because she believes the taxpayer, who “pays her more than enough” should be given a chance to be heard.

“Should I vote to make the Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 law?” she asks her constituents.

The votes will be collated and when Senator Lambie has come to her decision she will email voters and tell them how she voted and why.

That Senate vote is now not expected to happen until November.

“So far, we have had a lot of phone calls and emails coming through against the Bill and nothing the other way,” Senator Lambie said on Thursday.

She will be spending two weeks in isolation on her return from Canberra. “I always go through the emails to look at their reasoning. I will be in isolation for two weeks, so I’ll have a good look at it then and make phone calls.”

The Bill would give Australian Border Force the power to confiscate items such as mobile phones from people in detention centres.

Lobbying to secure Senator Lambie’s vote is coming from within Tasmania and further afield with Surf Coast Rural Australians for Refugees urging its supporters to email her office to ask that she vote the legislation down.

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge said it would provide “strengthened powers” to search for and seize items that put the safety and security of detention staff and detainees at risk.

But refugee advocates, Amnesty International and the Law Council of Australia have all rejected the push as an overreach of power that could lead to human rights breaches against detainees.

Labor MP Peter Khalil told parliament the phones were a lifeline for those in detention.