Andrew Giles’ flawed policy put the safety of the Australians at risk, Opposition claims

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles was warned his changes to immigration rules, which allowed sex criminals to avoid deportation, hadn’t been properly tested.

Exclusive:

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles was warned before he introduced his changes to ­immigration rules – which ­allowed sex criminals to avoid deportation – that the effect of them on ­serious sex and violent criminals with family ties and work history in Australia had not been tested.

Mr Giles has been under pressure over his decision to introduce Direction 99, which told immigration ­officials they needed to consider criminals’ family ties and links to the Australian community in deciding whether to waive a 2014 law that says ­foreigners convicted of a child sex offence or given a 12-month prison sentence must be deported.

The rule change has led to at least 13 convicted sex offenders – including one later charged with murder – allowed to stay.

Following the revelations, it was announced last week that Direction 99 will be scrapped, while Mr Giles has ordered a review of as many as 30 cases whose deportations were blocked by the Australian Administrative Tribunal.

Call to increase the scope of that review are likely to grow in coming days after it was ­revealed yesterday that more than half the cases in the AAT this year relating to Labor’s ­Direction 99 have been set aside.

Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles has been under pressure over his decision early last year to introduce the controversial Direction 99 that will now be scrapped. Picture: NCA NewsWire

It can now be revealed that Mr Giles signed off on Direction 99 without any testing done on the impact it would have on the cases of people who have committed serious violence and sex crimes who had family ties and work ­history in Australia.

According to a briefing note written by immigration officials in August 2022, which has been released under Freedom of Information laws, Mr Giles was advised the department had tested the effect of the change on 10 past cases.

The outcome of the “desktop exercise” saw two of the decisions to cancel visas revoked, leading bureaucrats to tell Mr Giles his proposed change would not make a difference to the number of serious and ­violent sex offenders being ­deported.

The bureaucrats told Mr Giles that under the exercise the three cases that involved serious crimes – including murder and child sex offences – would still have seen the criminal deported.

But the officials also warned him it was “important to note that none of those three cases had any family ties and only one had some employment history”.

Coalition Immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the briefing was a damning ­indictment of Mr Giles handling of his portfolio.

The Opposition is calling for Andrew Giles to resign following his handling of the immigration portfolio. Cartoon: Warren Brown

“It is clear from this Government document that Andrew Giles put the safety of the Australian community at risk based on a flawed desktop review that he was briefed on. It is but another reason as to why he should resign,” he said.

But a spokeswoman for Mr Giles said: “As the submission notes, advice provided to the Minister stated that the direction was not expected to impact serious and violent sexual offenders.”

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]

Originally published as Andrew Giles’ flawed policy put the safety of the Australians at risk, Opposition claims