Nat Barr has confronted the Home Secretary about Andrew Giles’ latest ministerial decision allowing several violent rapists to remain in the country.
The Sunrise host was left stunned on Wednesday morning as Clare O’Neil defended the Immigration Secretary despite mounting calls for him to be sacked.
Several criminal migrants, including a Sudanese man who identified himself as Aboriginal, were allowed to stay in Australia under its Direction 99, which was issued early last year.
The directive requires the Minister for Immigration or a body, including the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, to take into account an individual’s ties to the community when considering revoking a convicted criminal’s visa.
The decision means greater tolerance will be shown towards immigrants who have committed serious crimes if they have “lived in the Australian community for most of their lives or from a very early age”.
Nat Barr has confronted the Home Secretary about Andrew Giles’ latest ministerial decision allowing several violent rapists to remain in the country
Ms O’Neil argued that the decision had been made by the AAT and that Mr Giles had ‘intervened at the right time’ to try to resolve the issue and have violent offenders’ visas revoked again.
Barr was visibly shocked by the statement and wondered how rapists could stay in the first place.
‘He stepped in at the right time. Many people would dispute that. He gave this direction last January, this ministerial direction. Then people were raping children,” Barr said.
“They then used the laws, this direction that was put in place by your government, and argued that they had ties to this country, that their families needed them and that their families loved them.
‘They used that direction to stay in this country. So do you think it might be too late for Andrew Giles to act now?’
Ms O’Neil said Mr Giles was now intervening and trying to consider whether those visas could be revoked, adding he was a “good minister”.
More to come
