Dutton hits back at GetUp! over asylum seeker referral

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has accused GetUp! of ripping off donors by using money for ‘wacky causes’.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has accused GetUp! of ripping off donors by using money for “wacky causes” after the activists backed a push to take the Turnbull government to the International Criminal Court over its treatment of asylum-seekers.

The Stanford International Human Rights Clinic announced yesterday it would seek to take Australia to the International Criminal Court for its treatment of asylum-seekers ­detained on Nauru and Manus ­Island.

The SIHRC, part of Stanford University’s law faculty, will ask the ICC to investigate possible human rights breaches at the ­detention facilities, after which the court might decide to pursue charges against the Australian government and facility operator Ferrovial. GetUp! is backing the referral to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor, calling it a “landmark” event that could result in “the real possibility of criminal liability”, campaign director Matthew Phillips said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said: “Let this be a warning to people donating to GetUp! that you are being ripped off by these wacky ­causes.”

The request sent to the ICC summarises “over a decade of offshore detention practices of the privatised system” and “details harrowing practices of the Australian state and corporations towards asylum-seekers”, according to the SIHRC and its backer, the Global Legal Action Network.

Network legal ­adviser Itamar Mann said the ­submission was “an opportunity to address the widespread ­criticism painting the International Criminal Court as being biased in its almost exclusive focus on African states”.