Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has been brutally grilled on live radio over the latest detainee crisis and asked point blank why he hasn’t been sacked yet.
ABC Radio host Sabra Lane asked the question on Thursday as pressure mounts for Mr Giles to be dumped over the fiasco.
‘Andrew Giles, many ns would be thinking this morning, ‘Why do you still have a job?” she said.
‘You’ve had two years in the job and many people would be completely flummoxed by what’s happened in the recent weeks.’
Mr Giles has come under heavy fire following a series of immigration disasters.
Some 153 detainees, including murderers and sex offenders, have been released from immigration after the High Court ruled last year it was unlawful to indefinitely detain someone if there was no real prospect of removing them from .
Mr Giles came under fire again after it emerged several criminal migrants including child rapists have had their visas stopped from being revoked after a tribunal was acting under Direction 99 – an edict brought in by Mr Giles in January last year.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson became the latest to join the pile-on against Mr Giles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelling them a ‘pair of bozos’.
Mr Giles told ABC’s AM he had cancelled seven visas in the past few days.
Asked why he still had a job, he replied: ‘There’s so much work to do to clean up the mess, to rebuild the migration system that was left in tatters.
‘A system that was fundamentally broken under Mr Dutton [as] minister.
‘Just last night, I cancelled another visa which was revoked by the agency under the former direction.
‘We believe that these decisions need to be guided by to clear principles for protection of the n community.’
Lane dismissed Mr Gile’s attempt to lay the blame at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s feet, pointing out that he had been in the job long enough to make changes.
A new ministerial directive that is focused on ‘ensuring the protection of the community outweighs other considerations’ will be released for public scrutiny as soon as it is ready, Mr Giles said.
‘We believe these decisions need to be guided by two clear principles: the protection of the n community and by common sense,’ he said.
‘We want to strengthen the role of victims and the impact of them and their family members in consideration because that’s something we feel has been lacking, as well as, of course, ensuring the family violence consideration are consistent with the expectations of government and the wider n community.’
Ms Hanson described Mr Albanese as the ‘most pathetic, gutless Prime Minister I have ever known’ and said she ‘cringed’ at his leadership.
‘He’s a gutless wonder. He shows no compassion for what’s happening in this country. He was pathetic to listen to,’ Ms Hanson said.
‘I’m so angry with him in the leadership role of this nation that I cringe when I see him. I cringe when I hear their policies.’
Seven of the former detainees previously convicted of murder or attempted murder and at least two of them and 26 sex offenders are not required to wear an electronic ankle monitor or keep to a curfew.
‘They have no regard for the n people and their safety,’ Ms Hanson said.
‘They have no regard for the security of this nation because they put out a clear message to the people smugglers. We’re in a hell of a mess.’
Ms Hanson called on the Prime Minister to sack Mr Giles from the federal cabinet.
‘He has to go. Everyone keeps calling for it, but Albanese is protecting him, so it’s his mate. He’s protecting him because they think alike,’ she said.
‘And that’s what tells me that they both think alike. Albanese won’t get rid of Giles because Giles is thinking exactly the same way as Albanese.’
Speaking on the immigration crisis this week, n Border Force commissioner Michael Outram told parliament that there was a ‘big difference between some murders and other murders’.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson was shocked by Mr Outram’s statement and said ‘a murder is a murder’.
On Wednesday, Mr Albanese announced that the government would revise a regulation called Directive 99, which make ‘ties to ‘ such as family connections a primary consideration in visa determinations.
Daily Mail revealed that a Sudanese criminal with a lengthy rap sheet claimed he identified as Aboriginal and could play the didgeridoo in a successful bid to be allowed to remain in .
‘We’ve seen that we’re not seeing the common sense approach that ns should expect, nor are we seeing the focus on community safety,’ Mr Giles said on Wednesday.
‘But as the Prime Minister also made clear in Question Time, there were very many issues that clearly related to the application of the former directions issued under ministers in the former government, including, of course, Peter Dutton when he was the Minister of State.
‘The new revised direction will make it abundantly clear that community safety is a consideration that outweighs all other considerations … Making sure that that is effective is obviously something that I’m approaching with a laser-like focus.’