Gillon McLachlan to front Senate inquiry over Peter Dutton au pair scandal
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison and the office of former PM Tony Abbott have been dragged into the au pair scandal after AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan gave evidence at a Senate inquiry.
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AFL chief Gillon McLachlan has revealed he asked Scott Morrison about the status of a business visa of a “friend of a friend” when he was Immigration Minister in 2014.
The AFL chief fronted an inquiry today into the so-called au pairs visa scandal that has embroiled Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
It was revealed last week Mr McLachlan lobbied Mr Dutton to stop a French au pair from being deported in 2015 who was intending to work for his second cousin, Callum MacLachlan.
At the explosive inquiry today, Mr McLachlan said he had also inquired about one other visa case to Mr Morrison, who is now Prime Minister.
Mr McLachlan said he inquired in a personal capacity about the status of a business visa for an Argentinian man who wanted to come to Australia to play polo.
The man was a “friend of a friend” who did not speak English well.
He told the inquiry he had asked the AFL government relations officer Judith Donnelly to enquire on the man’s behalf about the status of the visa.
Ms Donnelly, a former political staffer, told the inquiry she had called someone she knew in then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s office about the matter.
Asked whether the visa of his friend of a friend was subsequently approved by Mr Morrison, Mr McLachlan said: “My understanding is the visa had already been approved and was in the process of being processed.”
He described his relationship with Mr Dutton as “a normal relationship I would have with a minister on either side of politics”.
He said he knew Mr Dutton when he was a Sports Minister and had met him “half a dozen times”.
MORE: Au pair granted visa by Peter Dutton found in France
On the subject of the French au pair Alexandra Duewel, Mr McLachlan told the inquiry he offered to help his second cousin who was “agitated” about the prospect she would be deported that night.
He said he got involved because his second cousin was trying to reach Mr Dutton’s office but it was a Sunday morning and he was unable to get through.
Mr McLachlan also said he never spoke directly to anyone in Mr Dutton’s office and that he hadn’t spoken with the Minister “in a couple of years at least”.
Ms Donnelly told the inquiry that after being asked by Mr McLachlan to pass on his cousin’s email to the Immigration Minister, she called then-Prime Minister Abbott’s office to obtain the phone number of Mr Dutton’s chief of staff.
She then called the chief of staff and alerted him to Ms Duewel’s case and proceeded to forward him the email from Callum MacLachlan.
Asked whether he believed Ms Duewel was intending to work as an au pair, Mr McLachlan said: “That’s not my understanding.”
Ms Donnelly also said she “made it clear” that her request came from her boss’s second cousin when she spoke to Mr Dutton’s chief of staff.
Mr McLachlan also said he did not believe Ms Duewel would have been deported without his intervention, despite the fact she was scheduled to be deported that night.
“All I did was help him (my cousin) and expedite the process. He would have kept ringing I’m sure. It was an issue of pure concern for him. And my understanding was he actually did get through to the office at some time that day,” he said.
“We started out the day talking about au pairs being assisted and now the question seems to be ‘what’s the go with the polo players?” Labor Senator Murray Watts told Sky News after the inquiry.
He accussed the Coalition government of being happy to help fast track visas for “mates in high places”.
LEAKED EMAILS LIKELY TO PROMPT POLICE INQUIRY
Earlier, Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo confirmed the leaking of emails which revealed AFL chief Gillon McLachlan lobbied Peter Dutton to intervene to prevent a French au pair being deported has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.
Mr Pezzullo told the inquiry into the so-called au pairs scandal at Parliament House today the matter of the leaked emails would likely become a police inquiry.
He has sought to avoid speaking about the emails today on the grounds it was possibly a criminal matter that they had been disclosed.
The emails, which show Mr McLachlan’s lobbying for French au pair Alexandra Duewel on behalf of his second cousin Callum, whom she intended to work for, were revealed by the Herald Sun last week.
Mr McLachlan will appear at 2pm AEST via teleconference.
Last week he said the scandal might appear to be “mates helping mates” but insisted he had only asked for an email from his cousin to be passed on to Mr Dutton’s office.
Eve Watts, from Inclusive Migration Australia, told the inquiry this afternoon it was unusual for an individual to be granted ministerial intervention after just two to three hours, as occurred in the case of Ms Duewel.
She said the usual process took about two to three weeks and required submissions that normally included up to 20 statutory declarations from members of the community attesting to the character of the individual fighting deportation.
Ms Watts added that of the six cases she had approached the minister about, only two were successful and both had links to Coalition MPs, namely West Australian Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie and Ben Morton.
All three migration agents who testified before the inquiry today called for more transparency in how ministerial intervention decisions were reached.
Mr Pezzullo told the inquiry earlier today Mr Dutton used his ministerial powers 25 times to grant foreign tourists visas since he became Home Affairs Minister.
It has previously been put on the public record that Mr Dutton used his ministerial powers in such cases 14 times in the past.
Home Affairs Deputy Secretary of Visa and Citizenship Services Malisa Golightly told the inquiry in both cases the au pairs did not break the conditions of their visas but later admitted the Department didn’t actually check.
“In visas as short as this we wouldn’t usually do compliance work,” Ms Golightly said.
One of the au pairs, Alexandra Duewel, had admitted to border officials that she intended to work in breach of her tourist visas when she attempted to enter Australia at Adelaide airport in October 2015.
She intended to work for Callum MacLachlan, the second cousin of AFL chief Gillon McLachlan.
Mr Dutton intervened to grant her a visa after representations from Mr McLachlan, who had asked the head of the AFL’s government relations, former Liberal staffer Jude Donnelly, to email the minister’s office about her case.
Mr Pezzullo told the inquiry the Department knew of the individuals who approached the Minister’s office on behalf of the au pairs “a little” because of the document trail.
But he said the person who intervened on behalf of individuals challenging the Home Affair Department’s decision to deport them was “a matter for the Minister and his staff”.
The government has sought to downplay Mr Dutton’s intervention in the cases of the two au pairs as routine decisions by highlighting that he has granted 4129 visas under the Section 195A ministerial power since taking on the role.
But the total figure includes other interventions for cases including refugees seeking a visa on humanitarian grounds.
Labor senators grilling Mr Pezzullo at the inquiry have requested the dates of each intervention.
The minister’s decisions would have been made public eventually as they are tabled in Parliament twice a year. The extra 11 decisions will likely be disclosed at the next occasion.
MORRISON DEFENDS DUTTON
Ahead of the inquiry, Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched a strong defence of his minister, who was reappointed to his role as Home Affairs Minister last week after attempting to roll Malcolm Turnbull in a leadership spill.
Mr Morrison said Mr Dutton had simply made a decision about ministerial intervention “which is done every single day”.
“Other decisions he has made on this basis, like decisions I made on this basis, were to kick bikies out of the country who were committing crimes. He made decisions to kick out people who were paedophiles,” Mr Morrison said.
The Prime Minister also said it was routine practice for Mr Dutton not to appear before the inquiry today as he was a member of the House of Representatives, and the inquiry was being held by the Senate.
BURKE ‘LOBBIED ON BEHALF OF HATE PREACHER’
A damaging leak also emerged today which revealed senior Labor frontbencher Tony Burke personally lobbied for an Islamic hate preacher who advocated for the death penalty for homosexuals to be given a visa to Australia.
“The Labor Party cannot be trusted when it comes to our visa system. We have read the reports today about the sort of people that the Labor Party wants to let in,” Mr Morrison said.
The Australian reported this morning that Mr Burke had lobbied the Home Affairs Department in July last year on behalf of The Voice of Islam radio station, which had invited Mohammed Rateb Abdalah Ali al-Nabulsi to Australia as a guest speaker at a charity event and to do talkback radio shows.
Australian intelligence officials had declared Mr Nabulsi a hate preacher. He was denied a visa on character grounds after Australian intelligence officials made the assessment that his views against Western values and women and homosexuals in particular “were likely to be abhorrent” to sectors of the community.
The Australian published a letter from Mr Burke to the department which noted that Mr Nabulsi had complied with visa conditions on previous visits. He also requested to be told if there was any other factors he should know about Mr Nabulsi’s case.
Last night, Mr Burke told The Australian Mr Dutton had not responded when he requested the further information.
“It is outrageous and appalling that there were character concerns about this specific individual and he never bothered to let me know, even though I had specifically asked,” Mr Burke said.
“Mr Dutton needs to answer the question as to why he kept character concerns secret from an MP who was seeking that exact information.”
Originally published as Gillon McLachlan to front Senate inquiry over Peter Dutton au pair scandal