Albanese must assert authority and replace hapless immigration minister Andrew Giles

Taking the easy option is never the right decision in the difficult job of immigration minister. By repeatedly taking that route, Andrew Giles has shown himself to be wholly unsuitable for the job. The seeds of disaster that culminated in the Mother’s Day stabbing murder of 22-year-old Bosco Minyurano allegedly by Sudan-born Emmanuel Saki can be found in a decision by Mr Giles to appease the long-held concerns of New Zealand’s equally deficient former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. The Morrison government repeatedly had rebuffed Ms Ardern’s demands that Australia stop deporting foreign nationals who broke the law. Ms Ardern’s concern was that New Zealand criminals with few domestic ties would fall into her nation’s violent gang culture. Mr Giles quickly introduced Direction 99 shortly before Ms Ardern’s Labour Party replacement as prime minister, Chris Hipkins, arrived in Australia for a visit. The unintended consequence of Mr Giles’s wrongheaded decision is now on full display.

Saki allegedly stabbed Minyurano just weeks after the former was freed from immigration detention after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturned a 2019 decision to strip him of his visa. Saki had lived in Australia since 2006, when he was 12. In accordance with Direction 99 – which says decision-makers must show a higher level of tolerance for criminal conduct by non-citizens who have lived in Australia from a very young age – Saki was allowed to stay in Australia despite having committed more than 40 offences as an adult and one as a 17-year-old between 2012 and 2018. The worst of those included a series of violent acts committed against his partner and the mother of his youngest child in the ACT in August 2018.

Regardless of Direction 99, Mr Giles had a clear ability to intervene as minister but failed to do so. The lack of action on Saki is the latest in a series of bad judgments by Mr Giles that have led to violent ends. The minister has been a liability for the government, and his department has been in crisis ever since the inept handling of the NZYQ decision by the High Court that resulted in 151 non-citizens, including violent criminals, being released from indefinite detention. One of those released was Kuwait-born Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, who went on to violently assault and rob Perth grandmother and cancer patient Ninette Simons in a home invasion that left her and her husband badly traumatised. Mr Giles’s delegate had signed off on the removal of Doukoshkan’s ankle bracelet. As in the Saki matter, Mr Giles’s response has been to reject any personal responsibility. On Tuesday, a former immigration detainee already convicted of a string of offences since his release from indefinite detention following the NZYQ decision was allowed to walk free from court despite committing several curfew breaches, after federal prosecutors failed to insist he remain behind bars. If the bloodied face of Ms Simons was not enough to shake Mr Giles from inaction and prioritise public safety, it is likely nothing will.

With concerns that those involved in the deadly trade of people smuggling have already sensed weakness in the federal government and are getting back into business, Anthony Albanese must assert his authority. The fact the Prime Minister and Mr Giles share a factional alliance within the Labor Party should be of no consideration. Mr Giles has failed and shown himself unwilling or unable to learn from his mistakes or set things right. It is past time for him to go and for a competent minister to be put in his place.