Roman Quaedvlieg lashes Peter Dutton’s ‘personal smear’

Roman Quaedvlieg says he reserves his prerogative “to seek recourse” following Peter Dutton’s extraordinary QT attack.

Roman Quaedvlieg has called on Peter Dutton to withdraw allegations he “groomed” a younger woman after the Home Affairs Minister launched an extraordinary attack in federal parliament and declared the sacked Australian Border Force commissioner was Labor’s “Godwin Grech” with links to Bill Shorten’s office.

Mr Quaedvlieg claimed Mr Dutton’s attacks on his “character, reputation, motivations, integrity and mental health” stemmed from the fact he had made two written submissions to the Labor-led committee looking into the au pair controversy.

Mr Dutton has lashed that evidence as “entirely false and indeed fabricated”.

Peter Dutton, right, with Roman Quaedvlieg in 2015. Picture: AAP

“It is extraordinary behaviour from a cabinet minister to pre-emptively impugn the character and reputation of a witness attempting to engage properly in a parliamentary process which ostensibly affords the same privilege to that witness that he, Mr Dutton, comfortably shielded under today to accuse me of the criminal offence of sexual grooming,” Mr Quaedvlieg said.

“While errors of fact can be made, and tolerated where corrected, personal smears to the tenor of those made by Mr Dutton with respect to his parliamentary statement today that I ‘groomed a girl’ are disgusting and offensive and I call on him to formally withdraw that comment.

“I reserve my prerogative to seek recourse through the parliamentary oversight mechanisms.”

Mr Dutton blamed a concerted campaign from Labor and the Greens on Mr Quaedvlieg’s “lies and information” but, after months of mounting pressure over his intervention in two foreign au pair visa cases, said he would not tolerate the “personal attacks”.

He used parliamentary privilege to unleash against Mr Quaedvlieg, the man he appointed as the nation’s first ABF commissioner in 2015.

“This smear is coming from the former Australian Border Force commissioner, a man who was as commissioner sacked from his position. He was a man who had groomed a girl 30 years younger than himself. He is discredited and disgraced,” Mr Dutton said in question time.

“It turns out his executive officer now is a senior adviser. Who to? The Leader of the Opposition.

Peter Dutton during Question Time. Picture: Gary Ramage

“I note that Mr Quaedvlieg doesn’t turn up in person to the Senate inquiry (into the au pair controversy), I suspect because he doesn’t want to be cross-examined. So what he does is puts out these fictitious bits of information and salacious detail that he can’t back up. He has been proven already to be discredited. He is someone the Labor Party should not rely on. And I think what has happened here is a lot has been promised to the Labor Party, but it is clear to me that Roman Quaedvlieg is your Godwin Grech.”

Mr Grech is a disgraced former treasury official who was caught fabricating evidence as part of the Utegate scandal which ensnared Malcolm Turnbull during the Rudd government.

Mr Dutton said there was “not one statement” he had made during the au pair saga that Labor could point to as being “factually incorrect” and refuted reports he had helped two Queensland policemen get jobs in the ABF.

One of the policemen, Matt Stock, is employed in Mr Dutton’s office as a departmental officer working in policy.

“The officer you spoke of is a decorated and distinguished officer, (with) over 20 years of service with the Queensland Police service. He applied for a job with the Australian Border Force. There was no interference with that process, he went through the organisational requirements and he was employed by Australian Border Force, and has done so completely on merit,” Mr Dutton said.

“No claim that has been put by the discredited person Mr Quaedvlieg or his mouthpieces within this parliament have been proven to be correct. And I’m not going to be distracted by these personal attacks again.”

The Opposition Leader has been contacted for comment.