Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has slammed former Australian Border Force boss Roman Quaedvlieg and called the ongoing au pair scandal a politically-motivated "game".
In an interview with Sky News on Friday, Mr Dutton said Mr Quaedvlieg was "a person completely without credibility ... He clearly has an axe to grind".
It came as Mr Quaedvlieg sent extra information to the Senate committee which is investigating Mr Dutton's use of his ministerial powers to pluck two au pairs from immigration detention.
The former Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has provided more material to the inquiry into au pair visas. Source: AAP
Mr Quaedvlieg has sent a letter to a Senate committee alleging Mr Dutton's chief of staff Craig Maclachlan asked for help in June 2015.
"I've done nothing wrong. I'm happy to stand up and be accountable for the decisions and the actions I've taken," Mr Dutton told Sky News.
"I think for political purposes some people are playing games around these couple of cases but I think we need to get back to the basics of what the Australian public wants out of our migration program," he said.
"It's all a distraction."
It's all a distraction Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton
Earlier Friday, Mr Dutton labelled the letter "entirely false and indeed fabricated" and said Mr Maclachlan did not work for him until October 2015.
In a statement, Mr Quaedvlieg said, "I will not comment publicly in the media on the details of my supplementary submission other than to state unequivocally that the effective substance of my original submission stands".
Also on Friday, in an explosive rebuttal of Mr Quaedvlieg's evidence, Mr Dutton called the former border chief's mental health into question and said he was bitter about losing his job for misconduct.
Mr Quaedvlieg was sacked from his role after he helped his girlfriend get a job at Sydney Airport.
"I urge Dutton to desist from personal attacks and casting aspersions over my actions, motivation, integrity, reputation and mental health," Mr Quaedvlieg said in response.
With a report due on Tuesday, Labor senator Murray Watt believes another public hearing is needed to get to the bottom of the saga.
"These latest revelations and contradictory evidence mean we do need to have another hearing," he told ABC radio.
"It's very typical of Peter Dutton, when he's under pressure, to start throwing mud at other people."
Cabinet minister Mathias Cormann said the ex-ABF chief's allegations contained factual inaccuracies.
"Mr Quaedvlieg is obviously not a credible witness here," Senator Cormann told Sky News.
Mr Dutton overturned his department's decision to deport a woman in June 2015 and she was given a visa to stay in the country, despite her original plans to work for a former Queensland police colleague of Mr Dutton's.
Mr Dutton is facing questions over whether he misled parliament by saying there was no personal connection between him and his former police colleague.
He has said he had not spoken to his former police colleague for 20 years but the man did call his office seeking help with the au pair's case.
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