The federal government has made a grim concession after revelations it lifted ankle bracelet monitoring and curfew conditions imposed on an ex-detainee convicted of serious sex crimes.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said an individual known as XTVC, released under a High Court ruling in November, was released without monitoring conditions under the advice of experts, and suggested there was no other course of action that could have been taken.
It came after reports emerged that the 42-year-old individual, who was convicted of raping a 19-year-old in 2011, had launched a successful legal challenge to have his anklet bracelet monitoring and curfew conditions lifted.
Hosing down public safety fears on Wednesday, Ms O’Neil stressed that the government had agreed to the conditions because it was the most legally viable option.
“I can’t comment on that specific case. The Community Protection Board provides expert advice to the government on these matters and the government takes their advice,” she told Today.
“I am an Australian woman and there is no way that anyone is apologising for the behaviour of this individual. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that if I could do anything to put that person in detention I would do it.”
But Liberal Senator Jane Hume accused the government of outsourcing blame over the detainee saga, reigniting the Coalition’s calls for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to resign.
“This is a crisis that seems to lurch from disaster to disaster every single week,” she said.
“This seems to be blaming anybody else other than yourself for your problems. Quite frankly Minister Giles needs to resign and Anthony Albanese needs to stop the protection racket for this incompetent minister.”
‘Entitled’: Wong breaks silence on Keating
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Paul Keating will not speak on behalf of Australia during high-level talks with a senior Chinese diplomat, breaking her silence.
The former prime minister‘s comments come ahead of her sit down with China’s foreign minister Wang Yi on Wednesday, marking the first trip made to Australia by a highly-ranked Beijing official since 2017.
Ahead of her historic meeting with her Chinese counterpart, Senator Wong told The Australian Mr Keating was “entitled to his views” but said he “does not speak for the government nor the country”.
The Labor veteran has been a fierce critic of Senator Wong’s approach to managing foreign relations with China, most recently blasting her government’s “mindless pro-American stance” during the Australia-Asean special summit in Melbourne earlier this month.
Senator Wong is expected to raise a host of issues with Mr Wang during Wednesday’s talks, including human rights abuses, regional security, trade barriers against Australian producers and raise opposition to the death sentence imposed on Australian citizen Yang Hengjun.
On Tuesday, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham, who will also meet with Mr Wang, told the ABC Mr Keating should “reconsider” his meeting with Wang Yi.
“It is quite pointed and somewhat insulting towards Senator Wong for the Chinese Embassy to have sought this meeting, given just how publicly critical Paul Keating has been of Penny Wong and the Albanese government and their foreign policy,” Mr Birmingham said.