Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has said he will investigate his department’s failure to brief him on a directive that allowed convicted criminals to stay in the country, after being forced to defend his job amid a blistering campaign to have him sacked him from his ministerial portfolio.
Mr Giles said he was not told by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal it had reinstated the visas of convicted sex offenders, kidnappers and drug smugglers under direction 99 despite “regular meetings” with the independent body.
He said a new ministerial directive would be released “as soon as it’s ready” after a series of late night crisis meetings with senior officials.
“What has been unacceptable is the fact that the AAT decision that set aside cancellations that were made under the direction 99, that were made under this government, and by my department, [ …] I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal,” he said on Thursday.
“And I’m deeply concerned about that and that’s what I’m focused on fixing now.”
The rule, known as direction 99, was signed by Mr Giles in January 2023 and replaced an earlier direction signed by former Liberal minister Alex Hawke in 2021.
The directive says Australia “will generally afford a higher level of tolerance” for non-citizens who have lived in the country for a long period of time.
Mr Giles’ has come under a barrage of fierce scrutiny after it was revealed criminals including a man charged with stabbing a 22-year-old and another man convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2020 had their visa cancellations overturned under the direction.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced direction 99 would be revised during question time on Wednesday, arguing it was the “only effective way of ensuring the tribunal members are making better decisions.”
Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster admitted her department breached protocol by failing to warn Immigration Minister Andrew Giles about decisions to allow foreign-born criminals to stay in Australia
“We had agreed to a protocol with Minister Giles to bring to his attention cases of a particular nature … and we did not adequately resource that function, and it was not being done in a timely way, and it has not advised Minister Giles of [those particular cases],” Ms Foster told senate estimates.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson continued the Coalition’s calls to have Mr Giles resign and said it was “ultimately” up to the minister to deal with failures from his department.
“I cannot understand how they [Home Affairs] were not able to keep ministers up to date in a timely way about these cases. It’s not actually still clear whether or not they did so – there’s contradictory explanations here. The minister said he was never informed. The department said he wasn’t informed in a timely way,” Mr Paterson said.
“Those are two different competing interpretations here.”