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June 8, 2024
IMMIGRATION Community safety a key test for govt
IMMIGRATION Minister Andrew Giles has signed a new ministerial direction he says will ensure "the protection of the Australian community and common sense" will prevail in visa appeal decisions.
But the Coalition quickly attacked the move as confirmation the Albanese government had failed to keep the community safe, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton positioning himself as the man to fix the problem.
Mr Giles, who has faced calls to resign over the release of dozens of criminals from immigration detention by a tribunal citing his ministerial Direction 99, is also criticised for shifting blame to his department.
The minister said Home Affairs was now updating him promptly, after Secretary Stephanie Foster recently admitted in Senate estimates it had not been informing the minister of matters before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
"I've put in place a 24-hour protocol where I'm being notified of any adverse AAT decisions," Mr Giles told reporters on Friday.
"This has been in place for the last week or so, and has enabled me to consider the cancellation of visas in the national interest extremely promptly."
Shadow Home Affairs spokesman James Senator Paterson called on Mr Giles to release the departmental advice "that he says he relied on when he claimed that there were drones monitoring release detainees in the community", which the minister has clarified is false, blaming the mistake on advice he received from bureaucrats.
"He's got to take responsibility for his own public hallucinations," Senator Paterson, speaking alongside Mr Dutton in Melbourne on Friday, told reporters.
"I'm not sure what drones he even imagined were being used given that they didn't have any.
"It's up to him to explain, and not just throw the department under the bus when anything goes wrong on his watch."
"It's always someone else's fault - it's the AAT's fault, it's the Home Affairs Department's fault. They never take responsibility."
Mr Giles signed the new Direction 110, which will come into force on Friday, June 21 "The revised direction makes it clear that the safety of the Australian community is the Albanese government's highest priority," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"It elevates the impact on victims of family violence and their families into one of the existing primary considerations."
The minister said there were "a small number of cases - around ten" that would need to be dealt with by the AAT under the existing Direction 99, which the government claims is being misinterpreted to release dangerous non-citizens into the community.
Direction 99, which Mr Giles signed in January last year, directs that the AAT make the "strength, nature and duration of ties to Australia" a primary consideration in visa decisions.
Mr Albanese and his minister have blamed the AAT for the release of dozens of violent criminals, insisting that the direction's intention had not been followed.
Mr Dutton said the new direction "won't go far enough" and seized on the issue to attack Mr Albanese's leadership.
He said the Prime Minister, who had agreed to make it harder for the tribunal to deport non-citizens with strong ties to Australia after lobbying from then New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, was to blame.
"The Prime Minister has implemented Direction 99; Andrew Giles is just the patsy for it," Mr Dutton said.
Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan said that, if elected, a Coalition Government "will rescind Direction 110 and remove ties to Australia as a primary consideration".
When pressed on whether the signing of the new direction was an admission that the former Direction 99 "was wrong", Mr Giles said: "The advice we had around the direction has not been reflected in AAT decision-making."
