Discretionary Power

Peter Duttons’ decisions have been hypocritical and disingenuous, but more concerning, is that one man was provided the legal power to make those decisions in the first place.

There’s no perfect application of the rule of law, however abuses are less likely to occur when the Rule of Law culture is strong.

One principle the ‘Rule of Law’ culture is built on is the ‘Separation of Powers’ between Parliament, Executive Government & the Judiciary.

Those deciding whether specific actions are legal or illegal should not be the same as those who have the power of decision-making in our Government.

This is important because separation of powers places checks & balances on the operation of each institution to ensure that none acts in an arbitrary and oppressive way.

What is happening here breaches that principle. Peter Dutton is not obliged to follow rules of natural justice. This is unacceptable under our system of Government and is arguably unconstitutional.

Our Government has severely undermined our Judicial System. The Government, intentionally or not has said to the Australian People that it does not trust our Judicial System to effectively apply the rule of Law.

When Peter Dutton was provided discretionary powers he could exercise as immigration minister, some of us were concerned.

Many of us (the Australian Community) were unaware of the implications associated with providing one man with so much power.

Although the ‘Allegiance to Australia’ bill sounded like an easy fix, it wasn’t.