May 29, 2024
The head of the Department of Home Affairs Stephanie Foster only learned that a repeat rapist earmarked for deportation had been spared after a news story on the latest immigration debacle was read to her in the middle of a senate estimates hearing.
In extraordinary scenes inside the federal parliament on Tuesday night, Ms Foster and the government’s representative, Senator Murray Watt, were left scrambling as Liberal Senator James Paterson informed them of the details surrounding the case of British-born masseur and rapist Charles William Davidson, who had his visa reinstated despite being convicted of sexually attacking 26 women.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles on Tuesday night moved to cancel the visa of Davidson just minutes after The Australian revealed that his deportation had been revoked by the Administrative Appeal Tribunal.
Just minutes after The Australian revealed that Davidson’s visa cancellation had been overturned off the back of Mr Giles’ Direction 99, which requires the AAT to make an offender’s ties to Australia a “primary consideration” when weighing up whether criminals should be deported, Senator Murray Watt told the estimates hearing that Mr Giles had moved in the wake of the story to add Davidson to a list of individuals recommended to have their visas cancelled.
Senator Watt – who could be seen reading The Australian’s story inside the chamber – said that, like the other cases identified by The Australian in the past week, the Department of Home Affairs had not previously informed Mr Giles of the AAT reprieve given to Davidson.
“The minister’s office has just informed me that neither they nor the minister were made aware of this case and they’ve now asked the Department to add this case to the list of urgent cases for cancellation submissions,” Senator Watt said.
Mr Giles is under increasing pressure over the fallout from his Direction 99 order. The Australian has so far identified more than 60 visa cancellations that have been revoked due at least in part due to the consideration of those directions, and in the case of Davidson – who has lived in Australia since he was five – the strength of his ties to Australia were described as carrying a “very heavy weight” in allowing him to remain in the country,
While Senator Watt argued that responsibility for the decisions rested with the AAT rather than Mr Giles, Liberal Senator James Paterson noted that there had now been a procession of cases that had cited the strength of the criminal’s ties to Australia as justification for sparing them deportation.
“I would accept that evidence minister, if it was an isolated case, if it was just one decision by one AAT member,” Senator Paterson said.
“But we now have circa 30 cases where consistently AAT members are making decisions to overturn the cancellation of the visa, and citing this provision of the minister’s guidance. One we could attribute to them and be their fault, but this is systemic. This is happening across the board. How is it not a result of the direction?”
As the number of overturned visa cancellations unearthed by The Australian in the wake of Direction 99 moved past 60, Home Affairs head Stephanie Foster said the department was unaware of just how many cases now needed to be re-examined.
“We are working on it with all the resources that we can and we will continue to give it our highest priority and get those cases to the minister as quickly as we can,” she said.
