By Sarah Whyte
Greens leader Richard Di Natale has demanded an apology from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, calling him "incompetent" and "negligent", after it was confirmed that Senator Sarah Hanson-Young had been spied on during a trip to Nauru.
Staff from Wilson Security, the contractor that oversees security at the detention centre on Nauru, had followed the senator and had since been disciplined by the company, a Senate committee heard on Tuesday.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said he would not comment on the operation. Credit: Andrew Meares
But despite the evidence, Mr Dutton has refused to correct the record, instead sticking to a number of comments he made about the senator last week, including that she was an "embarrassment to the country".
"These are the most serious allegations possible," Dr Di Natale said. "We need an apology from Mr Dutton for his outrageous and unjustified response, and we need this issue to be thoroughly investigated," he said.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.Credit: Andrew Meares
The refusal comes as fresh details have emerged about the treatment of an asylum seeker family forcibly removed from Melbourne to Nauru last week.
A source on Nauru claims that immigration staff used excessive force on both parents during their transfer from Australia to Nauru. As a result the mother of the five-month old baby had lost breast milk and was refusing to eat.
It is alleged that during the family's transfer between Darwin and Melbourne, the baby
Senator Hanson-Young has urgently written to the department in a bid to have the baby removed from the remote centre.
"It is horrific that baby Asha, born in Australia, is now in detention in Nauru. The trauma being experienced by this family is cruel and the government should bring them back to Australia immediately," she said.
Last week Mr Dutton launched an attack on Senator Hanson-Young, who regularly speaks out against the government's immigration policies, saying: "My experience of Senator Hanson-Young is that she gets most of the facts wrong most of the time.
"And she's written to me on a few issues already, since I have been in this portfolio; generally she doesn'tget her facts right. She makes these allegations which are completely unfounded."
On the confirmed spying activites by Wilson Security staff, a spokesman for Mr Dutton said: "The minister has commented and has nothing further to add."