Immigration minister Andrew Giles has revealed the government is tracking 153 immigration detainees including accused rapists and murderers using taxpayer-funded drones.
The minister has revealed for the first time that the government has taken drastic measures to keep tabs on the scores of detainees who the government was forced to release following a High Court decision.
“Well they are being monitored,‘’ Mr Giles told Sky News.
“What’s being done through our strong rules which impose strict visa conditions on everyone in the cohort, including daily monitoring, as well as the other discretionary conditions.
“There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we’ve invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce that and that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people. We know where they are.“
Asked why they aren’t all wearing ankle bracelets, he said this was because “the law doesn’t allow it.”
“The law requires a consideration for each person’s circumstances. That’s what the law requires,‘’ he said.
“There is so much being done for this cohort: spot checks, random house checks, as well as the use of drones that I just touched on. And the contrast here is to those people I spoke about earlier, who Peter Dutton released, without any conditions at all.”
Liberal leader Peter Dutton insisted today that he had cancelled visas as minister and that the cancellation power was exercised within the limits of the constitution.
But the Prime Minister accused him of releasing criminals himself as minister.
“They were released, no curfews, no ankle bracelets, no monitoring, no regard for community safety,” the Prime Minister said.
“It included 102 sex offenders, 64 of whom are child sex offenders. 40 domestic violence offenders, four murders, alleged murders or individuals convicted of accessory to murder, including a British man who was convicted in 2016 of being an accessory to the stabbing of an associate in a drug operation, helped another man carried a victim’s body to the boot of a car and dump it in a makeshift grave.
“Another British man convicted of being an accessory to murder when a drug associate shot another man in what was described as a gangland execution.”
Earlier, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles was bluntly asked “why do you still have a job” in a brutal grilling over the immigration detention mess that has led to murderers, rapists and criminals re-released into the community.
The furore follows last year’s NZYQ High Court ruling that the use of indefinite detention was unlawful and unconstitutional.
It has now emerged that at least two murderers or attempted murderers and 26 sex offenders released from immigration detention are not required to wear an electronic ankle monitor or observe a curfew..
Insisting he is “going to get to the bottom of this”, Mr Giles has claimed that the protocol he put in place has not been implemented as the government wrestles with a national scandal.
“A protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory,” Mr Giles told the ABC.
“As I said, I am focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration. I’ve put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened.”
ABC Radio AM host Sabra Lane opened the interview with Mr Giles asking why the Prime Minister had not sacked him.
“Andrew Giles, many Australians would be thinking this morning, ‘Why do you still have a job?’” she said.