The Albanese Government looks weak and sounds weak in face of immigration detainees scandal | Samantha Maiden

Ultimate responsibility for the detainee debacle lies with the man who appointed the besieged immigration minister in the first place, writes Samantha Maiden.

It’s now a question of when, not if, Anthony Albanese will dump his battered and bruised immigration minister Andrew Giles.

The fallout from the horrific laundry list of alleged crimes of serial criminals allowed to stay in Australia under his watch flies in the face of the government’s claimed commitment to improving women’s safety.

The fascinating question is why Anthony Albanese ever thought this was a good appointment in the first place.

With friends like the Prime Minister giving you this job, Andrew Giles does not need political enemies.

The Victorian Labor MP has been performing in the unlikely role of poacher turned gamekeeper.

A former lawyer previously charged with challenging the government’s decisions, he is now playing the role of minister with extraordinary powers and an extraordinary mess to clean up.

Immigration minister Andrew Giles is facing calls for his sacking. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cannot avoid the matter much longer. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Before entering parliament, he worked as a lawyer for asylum seekers and refugees trying to get them out of detention centres.

Now, he’s supposed to be locking them up. It was always stunning and some would argue stupid political experiment.

The task of keeping the whole situation under control is now proving more difficult, if not impossible, after the High Court ruled in November, 2023, that the Australian Government’s use of indefinite detention was unlawful and unconstitutional.

Where there was no real prospect that a person’s removal from Australia would be practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future, the Court found they should be let out.

What followed has proved a keystone cops debacle.

TELL US WHY IN THE COMMENTS

The government looks weak and sounds weak. And it is weakening the government.

Amid the Albanese Government’s ham-fisted attempts to blame their own public servants and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for the mess, the problem ultimately leads back to the man who thought it was a good idea to appoint him to the job: Anthony Albanese.

This week, the Prime Minister confirmed the government will reissue a revised order to replace the so-called Direction 99 to ensure that the protection of the community “outweighs any other consideration”.

The Prime Minister insisted he continued to have confidence in Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

A Senate estimates hearing this week heard that Andrew Giles was warned by his department that his ‘direction 99’ changes, which gave non-citizens with ties to Australia greater leniency during visa decisions, would stop serious criminals from being deported.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Mr Giles and the government couldn’t blame the AAT.

“If it was just one rogue tribunal member, or one decision, maybe you could blame the AAT. But now we have dozens – in fact more than 30 cases that the media has uncovered – of serious violent criminals who have been allowed to stay in our country,” Senator Paterson said.

“We think Andrew Giles should be sacked and we think Direction 99 should be immediately repealed and replaced with the previous direction to the department and the AAT, which required other factors to be weighted much more highly than someone’s ties to Australia.”

On Sunrise, host Natalie Barr listed a long list of alleged crimes committed by the cohort, proving the issue has crossed over from a question time fight to a prime-time mess.

“Surely the buck stops with him. He’s the minister. He made the direction. He had to consider these people’s ties with Australia,’’ Barr said.

“So all these rapists, you want to know what they did?’’ she asked.

“One raped a 14-year-old stepdaughter while his wife gave birth,’’ Barr said.

“One raped the sister of the mother of his infant child. One raped a disabled 14-year-old and a 16-year-old. One raped a child between the age of 10 and 14 and one raped eight times, 48 counts of sexual assault on 25 women and a teen.

“The judge said he had no remorse. That’s what we’re dealing with and you’re still arguing support for the minister.”

In response, the Home Affairs Minister said she “completely understands the concern that you have about these and the crimes that you’ve listed there are absolutely horrendous.”

“No member of Parliament and no member of the Government will disagree with that,’’ Ms O’Neil added.

But earlier in the interview, Ms O’Neil brushed off suggestions that Mr Giles should lose his job over the mess.

“So actually minister Giles has stepped in here. He’s taking action as a good minister would do. He demanded answers from the department about why these visas were not brought to his attention,’’ she said.

“He’s actively reviewing about 30 cases that we’re concerned about; indeed he’s already cancelled some of those visas. So he’s doing the right thing. He stepped in at the right moment. It’s important.”

But Barr looked stunned at the suggestion that Mr Giles had stepped in at the “right moment.”

“He stepped in at the right moment ? OK. A lot of people would dispute that. He put this direction in last January. Then people raped children.”

Originally published as The Albanese Government looks weak and sounds weak in face of immigration detainees scandal | Samantha Maiden