PM refuses to apologise after Labor branded Dutton a pedophile protector

Anthony Albanese has refused to describe Peter Dutton as a protector of pedophiles, but will not apologise for the comments of his Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil.

Anthony Albanese is refusing to apologise for Clare O’Neil’s comments on Peter Dutton.

Anthony Albanese will not repeat Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil’s description of Peter Dutton as someone who voted to protect pedophiles, but is refusing to offer an apology and instead argues he should be held accountable for his own statements.

The Opposition Leader on Friday said that the Prime Minister had “crossed the line this week” and that, if Mr Albanese was “man enough,” he would apologise for the comments made by Ms O’Neil and then endorsed by Aged Care Minister Anika Wells.

Speaking on 3AW radio, Mr Albanese – who agreed he had promised a more decent style of politics before the election – said he was only “accountable for what I say”. He took aim at Mr Dutton for suggesting the government wanted to release dangerous non-citizens into the community following the landmark NZYQ High Court court case.

The government later accused Mr Dutton of hypocrisy given he previously said, in June 2020, that “Labor has backed pedophiles over Australian kids” after the then opposition held up the passage of a bill ensuring that pedophiles would face mandatory minimum sentences of up to seven years jail under new child protection laws.

The escalation of the political row came as Operation Sovereign Borders commander, Rear Admiral Justin Jones, said that people smugglers were already manipulating the High Court NZYQ case as a marketing tool.

The NZYQ case – which related to a stateless Rohingya man from Myanmar who raped a 10-year-old boy – found that non-­citizens could not be detained indefinitely if there was no prospect of them being resettled elsewhere in the foreseeable future.

The Australian revealed on Friday that OSB and Australian Border Force officials were already on high alert for people smuggling ventures to Australia amid a rush of asylum seekers into Indonesia and surge in illegal maritime activity across South-East Asia.

However, Admiral Jones provided an assurance the arrival of 12 unauthorised maritime arrivals apprehended in Western Australia last week was not linked to the High Court’s NZYQ decision. He also said that OSB was working as intended and that 11 boats carrying 273 people had been intercepted in the past 21 months.

Executive director of Refugee Legal, David Manne, told The Weekend Australian he expected there was “every chance there are other people who will apply for ­release from indefinite detention” on the basis of the NZYQ High Court ruling.

Mr Manne was responding after the Federal Court used the NZYQ decision to order the release of an Iranian ­national known as “Ned Kelly Emeralds” who arrived in Australia in 2013 as an “unauthorised maritime arrival”. Mr Emeralds had been detained for 10 years without a criminal conviction, but was found to have “no real prospect of … being removed from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable ­future”, meaning he could be released under the NZYQ ruling.

Mr Emeralds’ lawyer, Sanmati Verma, said “the decision of the Federal Court in relation to Ned’s case may allow many more people who have sought asylum and are currently detained to litigate to seek their release”.

Mr Manne said it was “imperative that the government immediately release anyone who this (NZYQ) ruling applies to”.

He also rejected the Coalition warning that the High Court’s NZYQ ruling would serve as an incentive for people smugglers. “There is not a shred of evidence that has been produced by governments in Australia or internationally that detention deters people from coming,” he said.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre launched a High Court challenge on Friday to the Albanese government’s new laws forcing stateless people released from detention to abide by curfews and wear electronic ankle bracelets.