Peta Credlin: Target Anthony Albanese, not Andrew Giles, over immigration fiasco

When a minister is doing the PM’s bidding as Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is, he can’t be sacked without the PM also sacking himself, writes Peta Credlin.

There’s no heavier duty on a prime minister than to keep our people safe and what’s now obvious is that Anthony Albanese sacrificed our safety in order to win the plaudits of his hard-left comrade Jacinda Ardern and the support of New Zealanders who might eventually vote here.

It was the Prime Minister who set in train the process whereby about 80 serious offenders have had their visas restored, including numerous multiple rapists, multiple armed robbers, and at least one man subsequently charged with murder, because many of the 6000 criminals whose visas Peter Dutton had cancelled were Kiwis who were long-term residents of Australia.

What’s happened here is now clear. In July 2022, at a media conference with the then-New Zealand PM, Albanese said of the foreign criminals visa cancellation process that it “will continue to exist.

But we will have some common sense applied here and where you have a circumstance where someone has lived their entire life effectively in Australia … then common sense should apply.”

It was this prime ministerial statement that the Immigration Department cited in preparing the revised ministerial direction, the now notorious Direction 99, that in cancelling visas the “strength, nature and duration of ties to Australia” should also be taken into account.

Anthony Albanese greets his then New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern, the first foreign leader to be hosted by Australia's new Labor government. Picture: Getty Images

At the time of this change, his department warned Immigration Minister Andrew Giles that it could impact on some 2800 previous visa cancellations.

Given his lifelong commitment to open borders, including acting as a lawyer for the boat people who effectively hijacked the Tampa in John Howard’s time, Giles was always a poor choice to be immigration minister.

Add in the fact that he’s the PM’s factional mate and ideological blood brother, at least from the time they’d both opposed boat turnbacks at the Labor Party conference in 2015.

Last year, Giles failed to anticipate a High Court decision against the indefinite immigration detention of one foreign criminal and in panic, then released more than 150, some of whom have subsequently committed serious crimes.

And this year he’s failed to seek a single preventive detention order against any of the released criminals who include seven murderers and 39 sex offenders.

As of now, two of these released murderers and 26 of the sex offenders are not wearing ankle bracelets.

The PM can hardly blame Immigration Minister Andrew Giles when he is following his own decree. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

These instances of sheer incompetence would have been more than enough for a ministerial sacking, except when a minister is doing the PM’s bidding as Giles is, because Albanese can’t sack the minister without also sacking himself.

Hence the cavalcade of ministers trying to blame anyone but Giles – because protecting Giles is protecting the prime minister – over this public safety disaster.

“It’s all the fault of the public servants” was one-line last week but besides being the ministerial equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”, it was the public servants who in fact warned Giles not to do what he did.

And then trying to blame the entire mess on Dutton, whose policy the PM had reversed, just looked desperate.

Trying to blame the mess on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton just looks desperate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

After all, Labor has spent years portraying Dutton, the former detective, as a “tough guy” and now they want us to believe he was soft?

What’s also clear from the government’s half-heartedness on borders and immigration is the extent to which the Albanese government is radically different from its Coalition predecessor, despite the pre-election claims that it would be “safe change”.

Whether it’s the government’s initial Voice fixation, its determination to inject unions into business decision-making, its reluctance to approve the new fossil-fuel projects we need to keep the lights on and maintain export income, or its latest drive to throw multibillion-dollar subsidies at a green economy pipedream, everything this government does confirms that it’s our most green-left ever.

Last week, the Coalition did well in parliament maintaining relentless pressure on minister Giles through a series of well targeted questions.

But in refusing to sack Giles, it’s the Prime Minister who owns the maladministration of this portfolio.

And given that the current difficulties are the direct result of the PM’s personal concessions to Ardern, it’s really Albanese on whom the Coalition’s guns should now turn.

A clear theme is developing that the Prime Minister is weak and out of his depth, but this really should be reinforced by a sustained parliamentary attack on Albanese himself.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Target Anthony Albanese, not Andrew Giles, over immigration fiasco