Visa bungle dates back to Gillard government
The technical flaw which resulted in 149 dangerous non-citizens being released into the community on invalid visas dates back to the period of the Gillard government.
The technical mistake that resulted in issuing invalid visas to 149 non-citizens dates to the time of the former Gillard government when Brendan O’Connor was immigration minister.
Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that a “technical issue” was responsible for the provision of the problematic visas to the former detainees released into the community following the High Court’s landmark “NZYQ” decision on November 8.
This problem was inadvertently cleared up by the Department of Home Affairs when it put forward further regulation changes in early December but this accidental solution came after the invalid visas had been issued to the detainees.
Sources told The Australian that despite the technical flaw being inadvertently corrected in December, the government and Home Affairs were not aware of the problem with the visas until the past few days.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister said the problem “goes back to 2013”, with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles also saying the technical flaw had “been on the books for more than a decade since 2013 throughout, indeed, the former government’s time”.
“They (the Coalition) are always focused on looking for someone to blame, never focused on offering solutions. Our view is the opposite,” he said. “It’s about solving problems.”
Peter Dutton rejected suggestions the Coalition was responsible for the mistake, declaring that “this is a red herring”.
“They’re releasing people into the community who pose a risk, who have already committed further offences, and we know that for at least 10 of these people who have been charged, those charges won’t hold. The red herring that they’ve thrown out there is not factually correct. Minister Giles and others shouldn’t be in their jobs,” he said.
The technical flaw which resulted in invalid visas being issued to the former detainees was contained in the Migration Amendment Regulation 2013 (No.4) which was made on June 13, 2013, when Labor was in power.
This regulation contained an internal contradiction. It said that a subsection of the Migration Act would apply “to a person who is in detention” but the regulation also said it would apply to persons “not in immigration detention”.
This contradiction resulted in the withdrawal of charges against 10 individuals released into the community and who were thought to have breached visa conditions that included strict reporting obligations. However, these individuals can no longer be charged for breaching conditions on visas that were never valid in the first place.
Labor concedes the flaw was introduced while it was previously in government, but says the problem was not fixed by the Coalition for the nine years it was in power.
Mr Giles said laying of charges was “a matter either for the Commonwealth DPP or the various state and territory authorities”.
He also said the problem with the visas would not affect the standing of any offences committed by individuals under state or territory laws.
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said Mr Giles was at fault. “The question he now needs to answer is why does he think this isn’t about blame? He issued the wrong visas to 149 hardened criminals who had been released into the Australian community,” he said.
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