A Senate inquiry has reported the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton 'misled' Parliament over his involvement in saving two au pairs from deportation.
The committee on constitutional and legal affairs handed down its final report in Parliament on Wednesday evening.
"I confirm the evidence before the committee shows that Minister Dutton had both a personal connection with the intended employers of au pairs and misled the Parliament in claiming otherwise," Labor senator Louise Pratt told the Senate chamber.
"This undermines the integrity of Australia’s immigration program."
The government is expected to dismiss the findings of the inquiry.
But, Labor says the evidence is compelling.
"If you look at the evidence … they substantially confirm the level of personal connection and high level of intervention and co-operation of the ministers’ office with the parties asking for intervention."
Earlier
The Australian Border Force (ABF) warned against the Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton’s decision to use ministerial powers to save an au pair from deportation in November 2015, telling the minister it was not ‘appropriate’, emails released by a Senate inquiry reveal.
The inquiry will soon report on two similar cases in 2015 where Mr Dutton stepped in to grant young European women tourist visas, despite border officials believing they intended to work as nannies.
“The ABF does not agree with the content, or think it is appropriate the minister intervene,” an email from an inspector at the ABF command centre wrote to the department. The officer’s name has been redacted.
Nonetheless, the minister agreed to intervene and allow the individual to remain on a tourist visa, with a reminder that they were not allowed to work.
Senate
Another email reveals Clive Murray, the assistant commissioner at the time at the Strategic Border Command, had warned the intervention could cause “financial liability” for the department as the woman’s return flight was already booked with the airline.
“There may be some financial liability to the Dept if the removal does not proceed as the airline has been formally served. [Border Command] will be providing detail which does not support the minister intervening,” Mr Murray wrote.
Case files in the cache of documents also show the reasons why Border Force officers believed one of the women planned to work.
A search of the young woman’s phone uncovered text messages, asking if the woman was “keen to earn some extra cash while you are here?”
The person asked if they could inquire with friends about potential babysitting jobs so the visitor could earn a “bit of cash to fund fun”.
The young visa applicant replied: “Sure! Extra money for fun is always welcome!”
Mr Dutton has repeatedly said the two women did not work while they were in Australia, as per the conditions of the last-minute tourist visas they were granted at his request.
AAP
They're going to say I'm a bad person: Dutton
The emails also reveal the pace with which the department worked to find a solution.
In the November 2015 case, the minister’s office requested “urgent” advice from the department so the minister could act before he got on a plane bound for Jordan later the same day.
A string of emails shows some staff rushed back to the office to deal with the matter.
“This will be very tight, but we’re on it,” wrote on department official.
The document release comes ahead of the Senate committee’s final report, expected on Wednesday evening.
Mr Dutton told reporters they should “brace themselves” for a “witch-hunt” from the committee, given a majority of its members were from the Greens and Labor.
The Coalition members will likely write a so-called ‘dissenting report’.
“Without preempting or spoiling your surprise, I suspect they're going to say I'm a bad person,” Mr Dutton said.
“The evidence won't back that up. But that'll be the claim of course made by Labor and the Greens.”
Mr Dutton has the power to intervene in visa cases under the Migration Act.
The opposition is not claiming Mr Dutton broke the rules, but rather that he was doing special favours for people he personally knew when others were stonewalled by his office.
Mr Dutton has denied a close relationship with either family that requested the interventions.
One was a Queensland police officer he knew in the force 20 years ago, while the other came from a relative of the head of the AFL, who he met as sports minister.
