PM, Giles, officials wallow in mess over foreign crims

Time will tell if the revision of Direction 99 by hapless Immigration Minister Andrew Giles makes it harder for criminal non-citizens to remain in Australia. Anthony Albanese announced the revision during another desperate question time for his government on Wednesday. He and Mr Giles were unable to squirm their way out of revelations of repeat offending by rapists, murderers and other violent criminals allowed to stay because the government’s directive put their ties to Australia ahead of community protection and expectations.

Dozens of cases of serious offending have been exposed by The Australian’s Paul Garvey. In one of the latest examples, he reports that Sierra Leone national Abu Bah, sentenced by a judge in March 2017 for “abhorrent” sexual offending while under the influence of alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine and unspecified “pills”, was spared deportation because of his ties to Australia and the interests of his two children.

In extraordinary scenes in Parliament House on Tuesday night, captured on video and available on our website, Department of Home Affairs head Stephanie Foster and the government’s representative, senator Murray Watt, learned only after a news story on the latest debacle was read to them in a Senate estimates hearing that a repeat rapist earmarked for deportation had been spared. They were left scrambling and nonplussed as Liberal senator James Paterson read out Garvey’s story about British-born masseur and rapist Charles William Davidson, who had his visa reinstated despite being convicted of sexually attacking 26 women.

Tearing up Direction 99 is an abject failure for the Prime Minister as much as it is for Mr Giles. The move to go soft on foreign criminals was instigated by Mr Albanese in mid-2022 for ideological reasons to appease his political soulmate, former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, when she was visiting Australia two months after the Albanese government was elected. After months of berating Scott Morrison for packing New Zealand criminals back across the ditch, even if they had little connection with the country, Ms Arden gushed that Mr Albanese’s approach was “exactly what we have asked of Australia … what we’ve been seeking is common sense and the spirit of friendship.”

In August 2022, four weeks after Mr Albanese announced a change to the rules for New Zealand citizens facing deportation, the visa cancellation unit in the Department of Home Affairs warned Mr Giles that the decision to soften section 501 visa cancellations could impact up to 2800 cases.

Mr Giles apparently failed to prepare for the likely unintended consequences of the changes, now known as Ministerial Direction 99. But responsibility for the change, which made long-term residence in Australia a “primary consideration”, rests with Mr Albanese as much as with the minister.

The visa cancellation unit’s submission reveals that the then secretary of the Home Affairs Department was not consulted on the approach in the submission. But the Australian Government Solicitor was consulted, as was the international division of the department, based on what it called sensitivities to “scrutiny from the international community, advocacy groups and human rights bodies”. At least some of those sensitivities from human rights advocates would have been driven by ideological concerns. The issues of public safety and public expectations do not appear to have been the primary consideration.

Rewriting Direction 99 is no excuse for Mr Albanese to keep Mr Giles, his factional mate, in the portfolio the latter has messed up in so many ways. At least two murderers and 26 sex offenders released from immigration detention as part of the NZYQ High Court ruling in November last year, we report on Thursday, are not wearing electronic ankle monitors. Of the 153 detainees released following the High Court decision, seven previously have been convicted of murder or attempted murder.

Among many serious injustices to the public, it is unacceptable that Australians are not being told where the freed detainees are living. They have a right to know, especially as public money is keeping the former detainees. More than $300,000 has been spent on income support for the freed detainees, Australian Border Force officials revealed in Senate estimates. And a further $1.1m has been spent on the government’s hand-picked community protection board, which provides expert advice on the conditions placed on freed detainees. While Mr Giles is the main culprit in Labor’s failures on the issue, the problem runs deeper than him or Direction 99.