Peter Dutton ‘misled parliament’ on au pairs, inquiry finds

A Labor-led committee has found Peter Dutton “failed to observe fairness” when intervening in two foreign au pair visa cases.

Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton. Picture: Kym Smith

A Labor-led committee has urged the Senate to consider “censuring” Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton after it found he “failed to observe fairness” when choosing to intervene in two foreign au pair visa cases and “misled parliament” over the saga.

But the au pair inquiry was labelled “a farcical and shambolic witch hunt” by Coalition senators, who delivered a dissenting report and recommended Mr Dutton be commended for his “prudent and diligent” work.

Liberal senator Ian Macdonald said Mr Dutton would not be resigning or sacked by Scott Morrison in the wake of the report being handed down.

The inquiry has looked extensively at Mr Dutton’s intervention in Italian woman Michela Marchisio’s case, which was brought to the Minister’s attention by one of his former Queensland police colleagues Russell Keag.

It has also scrutinised the case of French woman Alexandra Deuwel, who was granted a tourist visa after AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan asked a staff member to contact Mr Dutton’s office.

Ms Marchisio’s matter has become known as the “Brisbane case” while Ms Deuwel’s is referred to as the “Adelaide case” because both were detained at the cities’ airports and had their tourist visas cancelled due to concerns they intended to work as au pairs while in Australia.

Labor and Greens senators do not suggest Mr Dutton acted illegally when he intervened to allow the au pairs entry into Australia, on condition they do not work. However they used their report into the saga to allege Mr Dutton had made a “purposeful misleading of parliament” by denying he had any personal connection with Mr Keag and Mr McLachlan’s second cousin, who hosted the French woman.

“It is the view of the committee that Minister Dutton had a clear personal connection and existing relationship with the intended employer of the au pair in the Brisbane case. Given his definitive answer in the House of Representatives, it is the view of the committee the minister misled parliament in relation to this matter,” the report states.

“It is the view of the committee that Minister Dutton acted expeditiously in using his ministerial intervention powers to grant a tourist visa to the au pair in the Adelaide case.

“Whilst the use of these powers is within his rights as the relevant minister, the committee recognises this request for intervention may not have come to the attention of Minister Dutton prior to the individual’s removal from Australia if it was not for the fact it was raised through personal connections.

“Minister Dutton appears to have failed to give consideration to the damage to public confidence in the integrity of the immigration system that his actions could cause and, at best, reflects very poor judgement on the part of the Minister.

Labor and the Greens said “inconsistencies” presented in the Department of Home Affairs’ evidence left “significant doubt” as to whether all relevant ministerial interventions had been captured by the inquiry.

The department updated its evidence to clarify Mr Dutton had intervened to grant a visitor visa in 21 cases involving 31 people, not 18 cases involving 24 people as previously advised.

Department secretary Michael Pezzullo also said some dates of visa grants had been incorrectly transcribed, were wrong, or were not captured in departmental reporting and had been subsequently identified as a result of a manual search. The department was still trying to locate a submission for one visa grant.

But the Department of Home Affairs found there was no evidence Mr Dutton intervened in a third au pair visa case as alleged by sacked Australian Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg.

“The committee remains unconvinced that the department has been able to rule out that another intervention may exist that might align with the former commissioner’s stated recollection,” the report states.

Greens MP Adam Bandt, who has vowed to move a no-confidence motion against Mr Dutton, echoed the report in declaring Mr Dutton had misled parliament over the au pair scandal.

“The Senate inquiry report confirms this. If he won’t resign, the parliament should take matters into its own hands,” Mr Bandt said.

BREAKING: inquiry finds Peter Dutton misled Parl over au pair scandal when answering my question.

I will seek to move a motion of ‘no confidence’ in him tomorrow.#Greens pic.twitter.com/7XAd5TUVpG

— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) September 19, 2018

According to the House of Representatives practice, the passage of a censure motion in the Senate “would appear to have no substantive effect”.

It can, depending on the circumstances, be seen as “contributing to the parliamentary and other pressures leading to a minister’s resignation or dismissal”.

The Labor-Greens recommendations (majority report)

• That the Government strengthen the minister’s tabling statements to Parliament on ministerial interventions, by requiring the minister’s statements to declare whether or not each ministerial intervention was made in accordance with the Ministerial Guidelines.

• The committee recommends that the Senate consider censuring the Minister for Home Affairs (the Hon. Peter Dutton MP) for the actions examined in this report, when he was the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, for failing to observe fairness in making official decisions as required by the Statement of Ministerial Standards.

• That the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs provide, within three sitting days, an explanation to the Senate responding to the matters raised in this report.

The Coalition’s recommendations (dissenting report)

• The Minister for Home Affairs be commended for his prudent and diligent work as a Minister;

• Mr Quaedvlieg’s correspondence be referred to the Privileges Committee and be considered as to whether Privilege should apply to these documents; and

• The Minister for Home Affairs ignore the Majority Report’s findings.