Peter Dutton slammed over ‘no risk mum’ visa denial

Queensland Senator Larissa Waters has blasted the Department of Home Affairs for refusing to allow a “no-risk’’ mum to return from the US, when it allows “violent ­offenders” into the country.

QUEENSLAND Senator Larissa Waters has blasted the Department of Home Affairs for refusing to allow a “no-risk’’ mum to return from the US, when it allows “violent ­offenders” into the country.

Former Sunshine Coast resident Lee Barnett, now living in South Carolina, was denied a visa to visit her daughter and speak at a national summit for children’s safety and wellbeing.

Mum-on-the-run Lee Barnett who eluded the FBI for two decades before her secret life in Queensland was sensationally exposed is fighting to return “home’’ after serving time in the US.

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The Greens spokeswoman for women, Senator Waters said it was outrageous that Ms Barnett had been denied a visa to visit her daughter and her home for so many years.

“Lee has served her time in the US and was found by the judge to present no further risk, which makes it unbelievable this is the ground on which her visa was denied,’’ she said. “The Home Affairs Minister is allowing violent ­offenders into this country … he allows people to come here to profit off hate speech and he intervenes to save his mates’ au pairs from deportation.”

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said that Lee Barnett posed an unacceptable risk to the Australian community. Picture: (AAPImage/David Clark

Greens Senator Larissa Waters: “The Home Affairs Minister is allowing violent ­offenders into this country … he allows people to come here to profit off hate speech and he intervenes to save his mates’ au pairs from deportation.” Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

Ms Barnett was living at Mountain Creek on the Sunshine Coast, which she considers her “home’’, when she was arrested by Australian and US federal police in 2013. She was extradited to the US where she served 18½ months in jail and two years on probation for illegally exiting the US in 1994 with her 11-month-old baby after a custody battle.

Her arrest exposed a 20-year secret life for the mum-on-the-run. Her daughter, now 25, and other family members and friends continue to support her and describe her as a devoted mother. A recent visa application by Ms Barnett, 58, was ­rejected by a delegate for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who said that she posed an unacceptable risk to the Australian community.