January 7, 2025
MARK LEVY: Well, I think this is the biggest story of the day. Under the Labor government, a man has been freed from immigration detention who attacked his wife with a meat cleaver. We've dumped former minister Andrew Giles and he's the one we have to thank for all of this. In the latest blow to the Albanese government's immigration detention regime, the Federal Court has ruled in favour of a Bhutan born domestic violence offender who can only be identified as PLQF. He's been diagnosed with schizophrenia, PTSD, an alcohol use disorder. He breached a domestic violence order, assaulted his partner and damaged property. And if that isn't enough, in one incident, he threatened to kill his wife, who sought refuge with some neighbours, one of whom he struck 5 or 6 times with that meat cleaver. He argued that Mr. Giles’ decision to personally intervene to strip him of his visa was unreasonable. The Federal Court ruled that Mr. Giles made multiple legal errors in cancelling the criminal's visa without considering his children and stateless status. Now I'm lost for words with this outcome. I mean the Government's approach, including Mr. Giles’ Direction 99 policy, has allowed offenders to avoid deportation. The Government seems to prioritise non-citizens ties to Australia over public safety. The new Minister in charge, Tony Burke, is facing issues with addressing these systemic issues amid mounting political and legal pressure. And I don't know about you, but I don't hold any hope that Tony Burke can fix this mess. How this government can be re-elected is beyond me. To talk further about this issue, and I know he's fired up about it, given his comments in the paper today is the shadow Home Affairs Minister, Senator James Paterson, and I've got him on the line right now. Senator, good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Mark.
LEVY: Well, this is just insanity. I mean, I would have thought community safety is paramount in this country. But we've got the Federal Court fighting in favour of convicted criminals.
PATERSON: Well, Mark, the Minister might have changed, Andrew Giles might be gone. But when it comes to their weakness and incompetence on community safety and immigration, all the problems of the Albanese government have not gone away. And it's the Australian people who are paying the price for this. It's the Australian people who will be exposed to the risk and danger of a violent non-citizen criminal offender being allowed to stay in this country because of stuff up by the Labor Party. And I mean, as you say, that is criminal and that really should be the final death knell of this government. And I think the Australian people will render a very harsh verdict on their incompetence in this area as soon as they get the opportunity.
LEVY: Senator, I just outlined what this bloke has been accused of, what he has been diagnosed with. And this all comes down to, the reason why the court has found in his favour, is because of the failures of the Government and the Minister at the time, Andrew Giles. Now I would have thought in a case like this you are dotting the I's and crossing your T's in this country, especially when we talk about the scourge of domestic violence. Yet this bloke's accused of trying to kill his wife with a meat cleaver and what? We just throw open the doors and let him come and live in Australia? It is ridiculous.
PATERSON: Well, exactly right. And the judge spared this government absolutely nothing at all. I mean, his judgement was incredibly harsh on the errors that Andrew Giles made in considering this case, including that he failed to consider things like ties to the community and his connection to his children. Now, if that rings a bell for anyone, it would be because when this government issued direction 99, a ministerial direction by Andrew Giles, they required decision makers, including the department and ultimately the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the courts, to consider whether or not a violent non-citizen offender's ties to the community and connection to their children and other factors could be brought into consideration as to whether they should stay in Australia. Now that was a change from the previous government which said that community safety should come first and must come first. So this is another self-inflicted wound by the Albanese government. They have brought this entirely on themselves. Unfortunately it is not them that deals with the consequences. It is the victims. It is Australians who become victims of those offenders.
LEVY: Well, this is an issue now for Tony Burke, who's the Minister responsible? Surely he's going to appeal this decision by the Federal Court.
PATERSON: I think that's an absolute bare minimum that an appeal should be lodged here, or if it's possible, he should intervene again and cancel the visa. But this time, following the appropriate processes, ticking all the boxes, dotting all I's, crossing all the T's, and making sure that this one is appeal proof. If he hasn't already started that process, I'll be deeply disappointed. This is actually a case that occurred in December last year. So it should be well on its way to being solved. But I think it was telling that there was no comments from the government in this article today. No doubt the journalist approached them and gave them that opportunity. But where are they and what have they done?
LEVY: I said off the top of the show this morning, Senator, I said imagine living next to this bloke, knowing that in the past his wife sought refuge with one of the neighbours and one of the neighbours was struck 5 or 6 times with a meat cleaver. I mean, not only his wife is in danger, it's the community as well.
PATERSON: Exactly. It's utterly terrifying. And unfortunately, if it was just one case like this, it would be bad enough. But as we know, there are dozens of cases where violent non-citizen criminals have been allowed to stay in our country because of policy decisions made by the Labor Party dictated by the Prime Minister, and that has put Australians at further risk. That has caused further harm against Australians. The first and most important responsibility of government is the protection of the community. And on that test, they have failed it, not just once but dozens of times.
LEVY: Well, you talk about other cases. I mean, there's a separate case here. And admittedly, the government won this case. It was an appeal lodged by an Iranian man. But the Federal Court Judge hammered the department, saying that the submissions included typos, it included incorrect references to legislation. So it begs the question, who is running these cases? Who is trying these cases? Who's appearing in the court when you can't even get the spelling and the right references to legislation correct?
PATERSON: Well, again, this wouldn't sadly be the first or only time that on this government's watch that shabby submissions have been made to courts which have had real consequences for Australians. They famously made concessions in the NZYQ case in the High Court, which was one of the catalysts for all of these people being released into the community. They made concessions they never should have made and that they subsequently rescinded. And that was on Andrew Giles' instruction, on Andrew Giles' advice as Immigration Minister. So unfortunately it has been not just weakness, which is a common feature of this government, but incompetence as well, and it is putting all of us at risk.
LEVY: And look, I'm going to put a call in to Tony Burke's office because I think we need to get some sort of response. And I'm with you. The least he can do is appeal it. But he needs to step in. And given the response I'm receiving from listeners this morning, they agree. Look, while I've got you, Senator, the other issue that we need to address is the number of asylum seekers trying to jump the queue and arrive here by boat because it was only last week that we've been tied to they are told that our processing centre in Nauru now holds more than 100 asylum seekers who attempted to jump that queue and reach Australia by boat. That's the biggest surge in detainee numbers since the final months of the Gillard-Rudd government. So here we go again, more and more boat people.
PATERSON: That's right Mark, in fact we now are heading back towards the kind of numbers when Tony Burke was last Minister for Immigration in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era. And you're right, there's been 26 attempted people smuggling ventures since the last election. We believe there are at least seven which have reached Australia, an unheard of event in border protection history. And hundreds of people who've been sent to Nauru, all on this government's watch and all because they've weakened Operation Sovereign Borders, the successful policies of the previous government.
LEVY: You know what, James? I entered 2025 and I thought to myself, you know, there'll be issues that I need to get fired up about. But I didn't think, what, seven days into the new year that I would have to sit here and talk about these sorts of issues. But it makes you wonder what's going on in Canberra and whether or not anybody is intent on fixing them. I appreciate your calling it out and we'll obviously stand by for some sort of statement from Mr. Burke. And let's hope common sense prevails. And in particular, this Bhutan born man is put back in immigration detention where he bloody well belongs. I appreciate you joining us.
PATERSON: Thanks for having me, Mark.
ENDS
