Peter Dutton intervened in au pair case after request from former colleague

Peter Dutton intervened to allow an au pair into Australia after a request was lodged by an ex-Queensland Police colleague.

The Home Affairs Peter Dutton during a visit to the AFP Forensics Facility in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton intervened to allow the entry into Australia of a female au pair who was detained after arriving on a tourist visa in June 2015, after a request was lodged by a former Queensland Police colleague.

The case re-emerged after Labor demanded an explanation yesterday over Mr Dutton’s November 2015 intervention for another au pair, 27-year-old French woman Alexandra Deuwel, after an appeal was made on her behalf by AFL boss Gillon McLachlan to the Home Affairs Minister’s office.

Mr McLachlan’s second cousin — Callum MacLachlan — was expecting to host Ms Deuwel, with Bill Shorten yesterday calling on Scott Morrison to explain why the yoga teacher’s deportation was overruled at “lightening speed”.

Au pair Alexandra Deuwel. Source: Facebook

Since 1999, Callum Mac­Lachlan’s father, Hugh, has donated as much as $150,000 to state and federal branches of the Liberal Party, including a $50,000 donation to the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party in 2016.

The Opposition Leader said the Prime Minister needed to explain Mr Dutton’s actions, after leaked emails revealed he acted against departmental advice to allow Ms Deuwel to stay in Australia.

Last week, the Senate referred the exercise of Mr Dutton’s ministerial powers in relation to foreign au pairs to the legal and constitutional affairs references committee. A report is due by September 11 and the inquiry is due to hear evidence on Wednesday.

“What was so special about this French au pair?” Mr Shorten said. “Mr Morrison now needs to not hide any more about this issue. He needs to explain his view on Mr Dutton’s actions.”

In a statement released yesterday, Mr Dutton said “ministerial intervention operates almost always in cases where the department has made a negative decision’’. “Ministerial intervention is not invoked where the department has issued a positive outcome. That is the very nature of a ministerial intervention power,” he said.

He said there were hundreds of cases each year where immigration ministers, including previous Labor ministers, considered cases ‘‘where a visa has been cancelled or a negative decision is handed down by the department’’.

He denied he was personally lobbied by Gillon McLachlan to intervene on the deportation of the French au pair.

Mr Dutton said he intervened on the case because he thought it was “a bit rough” Ms Deuwel would be deported.

“I had a look at her case and I made a judgment on the merit of the case, not my knowledge of the person who had referred it, and I looked at it and thought, ‘Look, it is a bit rough’,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

AFL CEO Gillon Mclachlan. Picture: Getty

“There is no criminal history, she has agreed she wouldn’t work while she was here — as I understand it she never overstayed her visa, hasn’t committed any criminal offences and I thought it was an application of common sense.”

It emerged that Mr Dutton also intervened in June 2015 for another foreign au pair after a request was lodged by Russell and Nicole Keag, who intended to employ her.

The Australian confirmed Mr Dutton knew Mr Keag as they worked together for Queensland Police during the 1990s. They had not spoken for about 20 years.

Mr Dutton’s spokeswoman said the minister “considers cases solely on their merits”.

Internal departmental communications leaked to Labor senator Kimberley Kitching about the French au pair revealed how Mr Dutton intervened in the case at 8:20pm on November 1 2015, just nine hours after his office received the initial e-mail from Gillon­ McLachlan.

This was despite internal advice sent at 6:24pm by the Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Border Command, Clive Murray, saying that further detail would be provided which “does not support the minister intervening” and that the department could incur “some financial liability” if Ms Deuwel were not deported.

He also noted that Ms Deuwel had been counselled previously, in May 2015, that she was unable to work on a tourist visa.