The Federal Government is looking to allow the Australian Border Force (ABF) to seize drugs and mobile phones belonging to people in immigration detention.

A bill laying out the new powers were introduced to the House of Representatives in September 2017, but have not been debated for almost 18 months.

In 2018, the Federal Court overturned a ban on mobile phones in detention centres in response to a class action on behalf of about 80 asylum seekers.

That case was led by lawyer George Newhouse, who described the judgment at the time as “stopping the overreach of Minister Peter Dutton and protected the rights of vulnerable people trapped indefinitely in his brutal system of immigration detention”.

Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge says it is essential the legislation will be re-introduced to Parliament, saying there have been 332 cases of weapons and drug detections in immigration detention facilities this year.

He says ABF officers are currently powerless to seize such items, leaving them reliant on local or federal police.

“[You're] utilising their resources and it can sometimes take time and in the meantime a detainee may have consumed the drugs or got rid of it and so the evidence has gone,” Mr Tudge has told the ABC.

Mr Tudge says current laws also prohibit an ABF officer from confiscating a mobile phone being used by a detainee to access child pornography or extremist material.

“There are instances where people have used their devices, for example a person who is in the detention centre being kicked out of the country because of child molestation charges has been found using that device to call the victim's parents inside the detention centre,” Mr Tudge said.

“We've had other instances where a person is in a detention centre because of their extreme ideological views... they're using their device to spread those ideological views.

“[It will mean] the Australian Border Force officers will have the discretion to be able to remove mobile phones from individuals... and they'll exercise that discretion judiciously.

“Bear in mind that there are fixed line phones in every detention centre, and computers in every detention centre so every single detainee will always have access to a phone but they just won't always have their mobile phone.”

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Kristina Keneally says the Coalition has not adequately explained why there is a sudden need for extra powers.

“If Peter Dutton's incompetence means illicit drugs, weapons and child exploitation material have made their way into immigration detention centres, he needs to explain why this has happened during his five and a half years as the Minister,” she said.