May 29, 2024
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. Just when you think it couldn't possibly get any worse, we learn that more people who have been allowed to stay in our country as a result of the ministerial direction that Andrew Giles issued have come forward. One person who offended in terms of sexual offences, including rape against 26 women and children, who came from Scotland to this country who is a non-citizen has been allowed to stay as a result of AAT decision that directly cited Ministerial Direction 99 issued by Andrew Giles. And the new primary consideration which he inserted, that your ties to Australia must be considered and given considerable weight, regardless of the level of offending, if you've been here since your formative years. I can't believe we have to be here again today calling for Andrew Giles to be sacked. I can't believe we have to be here again today, calling for the Prime Minister to repeal direction 99 and return to the Coalition's direction, which put much more weight on community safety. But here we are, and until the Prime Minister acts, we will continue to step forward and call for him to do so.
JOURNALIST: Will you put forward a motion to the Parliament to repeal direction 99? If you guys can do.
PATERSON: That's something that we'll look at. If the government fails to act, surely we shouldn't have to resort to tactics like that. Surely it is within the minister's power to do so. But we'll look at all options to protect the Australian community.
JOURNALIST: It was also, direction under originally, the decision by the minister. Wouldn't that have been a disallowable instrument? And have a three month cooling off period to look at, perhaps, these bad decisions that were coming out the AAT and how you clamp down and repeal it?
PATERSON: Well, that's not clear to me. I'll seek further advice from the department about that in Senate estimates today. But of course, it's not the Opposition's job to watch AAT cases. It's the minister's job and his office's job. And he should have noticed that his department all of a sudden stopped referring cases to him that he should have been cancelling, it is routine. Any minister for Immigration should be surprised if he goes without a day getting a referral from the department about a visa that needs to be cancelled on character grounds.
JOURNALIST: Given he's said that the department stopped referring these cases to him. Do you have confidence in the department and Stephanie Foster as Secretary?
PATERSON: I haven't been able to get any good answers at all out of the Department of Home Affairs so far in asking how this happened. They provided no adequate explanations to me. They can't even tell me which cases, if any, the minister was notified of, or which cases he was notified of just late or not at all. I mean, until we get to the bottom of this issue, I think there's very real questions about the administration of this department under these ministers.
JOURNALIST: Should all 30 of these cases be reviewed by the Minister?
PATERSON: Every single one of these cases needs to be reviewed. Every single one of these visas should be cancelled if the minister has the power to do so. And in other cases, there should be appeals to the Federal Court to correct the errors of law that might have been made by the AAT.
JOURNALIST: Should there be a broader inquiry? We know a lot of these cases via the media, there's been far more than just 30 sort of appeals to the tribunal. Do we need to have a further look at exactly what's going on here in the past 12 and a bit months.
PATERSON: That's something that we're going to reflect on after Senate estimates. we will see what answers we get out of the department during Senate estimates. But I think this is a very good case for inquiry into this mess. Last time we tried to have an inquiry though into immigration detainee messes under this government's watch, the Labor party and the Greens voted together in the Senate to block it to prevent scrutiny. I hope they don't do so again of we get to that point.
JOURNALIST: On the way into government, the Attorney General actually looked at sort of ripping up the AAT and starting again. I think there's was a review under way. Is that something now that you think you'd be prepared to look at? Considering what we've seen.
PATERSON: This is a total distraction. In fact, most of the members of the AAT on a transfer to the new ART body, and there's no reason to expect that they would make their decisions in any different way. They wouldn't be required to make their decisions in a different way. If it was just one AAT member, if it was just one rogue decision, maybe you could blame them. But we now have dozens of decisions made by a whole range of different AAT members who have clearly sighted direction 99 and the new primary consideration to consider strength of ties to Australia as the reason for their decision. So the only person who's responsible for that is Andrew Giles and this government.
JOURNALIST: Just want to ask a question as well. Over in Perth we saw quite a heart wrenching interview with a woman who had been failed by the system. She went to the police, she was ignored. After doing that, what was your immediate reaction, do you think there are instruments the federal government could do to help, you know, avoid this situation in future?
PATERSON: This is a very distressing interview and a very powerful statement by a victim of a very horrific crime. It's very clear that collectively, state and federal governments, police, people of both political persuasions have collectively failed the women of Australia, when it comes to domestic violence. This is a complicated issue and I don't want to oversimplify it, but one thing that stands out to me is that in so many of these cases, these men have either been charged or convicted of serious violent crimes, or their violent crimes have been reported to police and no action was taken. They were released on bail, they were allowed in the community to then re-offend and in some cases escalate their offending, including to murder. That is a disgrace. I think we have to completely change our approach when it comes to family violence and the presumption of bail. The best thing we can do in the short term to protect women is get violent men off the streets.
JOURNALIST: Also Adam Bandt, says he's going to introduce a motion to Parliament today to recognise Palestine as a state. your response?
PATERSON: Another stunt by the Greens, who have weaponised this issue for domestic political purposes, particularly against the Labor party in their inner city seats. Their motivations are utterly transparent. It would be irresponsible for Australia to go down that path, and I hope that all sensible members vote against this resolution.
Thanks everyone.
ENDS
