Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has said he will investigate his department’s failure to brief him on a directive that allowed convicted criminals to stay in the country, after being forced to defend his job amid a blistering campaign to have him sacked him from his ministerial portfolio.
Mr Giles said he was not told that the Administrative Appeals Tribunal had reinstated the visas of convicted sex offenders, kidnappers and drug smugglers under direction 99 despite “regular briefings” with his office.
He said a new ministerial directive would be released “as soon as it’s ready” after a series of late night crisis meetings with senior officials.
“What has been unacceptable is the fact that the AAT decision that set aside cancellations that were made under the direction 99, that were made under this government, and by my department, [ …] I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal,” he said on Thursday.
“I’m deeply concerned about that and that’s what I’m focused on fixing now.”
The rule, known as direction 99, was signed by Mr Giles in January 2023 and replaced an earlier direction signed by former Liberal minister Alex Hawke in 2021.
The directive says Australia “will generally afford a higher level of tolerance” for non-citizens who have lived in the country for a long period of time.
Mr Giles’ has fallen under a barrage scrutiny after it was revealed criminals, including a man charged with stabbing a 22-year-old and another man convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, had their visa cancellations overturned under the rule.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced direction 99 would be revised during question time on Wednesday, arguing it was the “only effective way of ensuring the tribunal members are making better decisions.”
Continuing calls to have Mr Giles sacked, opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was “ultimately” up to the minister to deal with failures within his department.
“I cannot understand how they [Home Affairs] were not able to keep ministers up to date in a timely way about these cases. It’s not actually still clear whether or not they did so – there’s contradictory explanations here,” he said on Wednesday.
Dan Tehan, the opposition spokesman for immigration, accused Mr Giles of being “asleep at the wheel” following reports from The Australian that claim he was briefed in 2022 that up to 2800 visa cases would be impacted by directive 99.
“The revelations today are completely and utterly damning,” Mr Tehan told ABC Radio National.