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Is this a dead minister walking? · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, May THIRTI inflation has jumped for a second time,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: climbing to two point six percent in April. The unexpected
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  Speaker 1: rebound has experts worried about the government's budget spending spree
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and it means no interest rate cut for a while.
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  Speaker 2: Yet.
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  Speaker 1: A phone has been found in the search for missing
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy. She disappeared after going for a
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: jog and a huge search by Victoria police has turned
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  Speaker 1: up a mobile phone in a dam close to where
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  Speaker 1: Miss Murphy's phone was last detected. You can read that
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  Speaker 1: developing story right now at the Australian dot com. U
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The government will ditch a policy that was allowing violent
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  Speaker 1: criminals to remain in the country even after their visas
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  Speaker 1: were canceled. So will the minister responsible be sacked?
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  Speaker 3: Stay with us, booted by Border Force, marched to a plaque.
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  Speaker 3: Thirty Kiwi criminals are today back in New Zealand, deported
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  Speaker 3: after their visas were canceled.
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  Speaker 4: So there's some certain parts of Australia's law which are ridiculous.
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  Speaker 4: This is Australia exporting its garbage to New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing enrages New Zealanders like Australia. From this side of
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  Speaker 1: the Tasman, we tend to regard New Zealand with benign goodwill.
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  Speaker 1: It's so pretty, we love skiing in Queenstown. Everyone's so friendly.
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  Speaker 1: I spent five years living in New Zealand and quickly
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  Speaker 1: realized that to many Kiwis, that attitude of goodwill comes
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  Speaker 1: across as just patronizing, arrogant, self centered, all the qualities
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  Speaker 1: they dislike most about Australia. But Australia's prosperity are golden
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  Speaker 1: weather and are higher wages mean we attract New Zealand
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  Speaker 1: migrants in their tens of thousands. They don't need to
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  Speaker 1: apply for visas, and they don't need citizenship to access
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  Speaker 1: Medicare and other entitlements. But former New Zealand Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Jacinda Adern had a huge gripe with one Australian policy
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  Speaker 1: in particular.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I've I've been absolutely clear this is corrosive to
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  Speaker 2: our relationship.
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  Speaker 1: Starting with the Morrison government, Australia started deporting foreign born
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  Speaker 1: criminals if they didn't have Australian citizenship. The idea was
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  Speaker 1: if you're not a citizen and you commit a crime,
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  Speaker 1: you don't get to stay. But when Australia started sending
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  Speaker 1: Keiwi criminals home, ar Dern and the New Zealand Labor
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  Speaker 1: Party turned the issue into a vote winner.
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  Speaker 2: Countless who have no home in New Zealand, they have
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  Speaker 2: no nitwork, they have grown up and Australia that is
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  Speaker 2: their home and that is where they should stay.
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  Speaker 1: Ardern unsuccessfully lobbied Morrison to change the law.
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  Speaker 4: That's what the Australian policy is, and that policy is
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  Speaker 4: framed in Australia's national interest.
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  Speaker 1: But it was Anthony Albanesi's government in twenty twenty three
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  Speaker 1: which agreed to change the policy for all foreign citizens,
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  Speaker 1: not just New Zealanders. Now the issue has turned into
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  Speaker 1: a political nightmare here in Australia.
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  Speaker 4: Was responsible and sixty four child in posing those questions.
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  Speaker 4: It's unparliamentary and it's dog.
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  Speaker 1: Listen because the Australian has revealed that new directive has
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  Speaker 1: allowed dozens of violent criminals, including rapists, domestic violence perpetrators
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  Speaker 1: and child abusers to stay in Australia.
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  Speaker 4: One woman was bashed so hard there eyelids were cut
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  Speaker 4: open and terrible crimes against children.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor.
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  Speaker 4: This is the hard, terrible truth and the government has
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  Speaker 4: had to face this, and of course once the public
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  Speaker 4: became aware of this, it has become a much greater
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  Speaker 4: issue and Labor overall over the last few months has
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  Speaker 4: suffered a big four in standing in the public eye
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  Speaker 4: on its ability to handle crime, law and order and
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  Speaker 4: border protection. This has become a real hot button issue
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  Speaker 4: for the government.
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  Speaker 1: Here's how it went so wrong. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles,
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  Speaker 1: in response to New Zealand's advocacy, issued something called Direction
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  Speaker 1: ninety nine, a new guideline for the tribunal that considers
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  Speaker 1: VISA situations the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Direction ninety nine. There's
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  Speaker 1: the coibunal must consider the depth and duration of the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: offender's connection to Australia as one of the factors when
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  Speaker 1: making its decision. Giles says he intended this to be
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  Speaker 1: balanced with other factors like the seriousness of the offending.
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  Speaker 1: Problem is the AAT in some cases has made decisions
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  Speaker 1: based mainly on the connection to Australia part and that
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  Speaker 1: seen some serious offenders allowed to stay. The Australian's journo
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  Speaker 1: Paul Garvey has revealed this week the government released this
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  Speaker 1: policy on International Women's Day to show it was taking
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  Speaker 1: violence against women seriously. Because Direction ninety nine also contained
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  Speaker 1: a new rule that if an offender had committed family violence,
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  Speaker 1: including stalking, coercive control, sexual assault or financial abuse, that
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  Speaker 1: should weigh against their visa application.
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  Speaker 4: It didn't work to protect women, it didn't work to
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  Speaker 4: get rid of perpetrators of violence against women, and it
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  Speaker 4: actually helped them stay. And what's more, we know from
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  Speaker 4: estimates committees that the Department of Immigration warned that this
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  Speaker 4: direction would make it easier for people who had committed
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  Speaker 4: offenses non citizens to remain in Australia, or get renewed
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  Speaker 4: visas or not be deported. This has been going on
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  Speaker 4: close to eighteen months.
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  Speaker 1: What's your assessment of Andrew Giles, the Minister.
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  Speaker 4: I think he has been inept from the beginning. He
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  Speaker 4: has tried to duck and weave. This is evidence of
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  Speaker 4: his attempting, or his general reluctance to be hard on
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  Speaker 4: people who are asylum seekers or seeking refuge or seeking
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  Speaker 4: to stay in Australia. This is part and parcel of
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  Speaker 4: his long history as a lawyer. He has set himself
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  Speaker 4: in parliament. Oh, my department didn't tell me about important decisions,
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  Speaker 4: and somehow he's not responsible. Oh, it's an independent tribunal,
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  Speaker 4: an independent tribunal acting on the actual directive. He told
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  Speaker 4: them you have to do this, And of course in
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  Speaker 4: the end it's all Peter Dutton's fault. And this has
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  Speaker 4: been the problem for Andrew Giles as Immigration Minister. He
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: will not take responsibility.
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  Speaker 1: Will he have to be sacked?
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  Speaker 4: Well he should be.
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  Speaker 1: On Wednesday, the government crumbled and dumped Direction ninety nine,
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  Speaker 1: blaming the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which was already planning to
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  Speaker 1: replace with a different body.
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  Speaker 3: The new directive will ensure that the protection the committee
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  Speaker 3: out of ways. Anyhow, there's a sist well cease.
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  Speaker 4: This is what we were told it did all along.
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  Speaker 4: So it is a complete concession of failure. It is
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  Speaker 4: more evidence, even more evidence that Giles should go. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 4: the Prime Minister will have to do something about Giles himself,
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  Speaker 4: not just his directive, and by then the damage will
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  Speaker 4: be even worse for the Labor government.
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  Speaker 1: So whose fault is this? And now what that's after
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  Speaker 1: the break. The Australian subscribers get all our journalism and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: analysis around the clock for a lot less than a
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: cup of coffee a day. We'd love you to join
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: us by subscribing at the Australian dot com dot We'll
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: be back after this break. Losing a minister is something
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  Speaker 1: no prime minister wants to do, especially not when you're
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  Speaker 1: heading for an election and you've bragged about not having
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to lose any ministers.
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  Speaker 4: On the second end of the nursery of his election,
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  Speaker 4: he continued to make the point and he put it
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  Speaker 4: up as a highlight that he had never had to
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  Speaker 4: sack a minister in his first two years. He has
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  Speaker 4: sent this benchmark. Now, if he has to sack a
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: minister in two years and a week after, that's going
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: to look pretty thin. He can shift him, but if
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: he shifts him, he's got to have a reshuffle, and
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  Speaker 4: he doesn't particularly want to do that. So Labor is
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: left with the problem of having an inept minister in
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  Speaker 4: a position he can't handle, and he will continue to
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  Speaker 4: make mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: Giles already had a migration problem on his hands. The
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  Speaker 1: scores of stateless detainees released by the High Court which
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: said they couldn't be held in custody indefinitely. Some had
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  Speaker 1: been convicted of serious crimes. Since their release, some have
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  Speaker 1: allegedly committed more violent offenses. Labor has made serious mistakes
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  Speaker 1: over immigration and border policy now over two decades. Dinners,
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  Speaker 1: what's going on here?
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  Speaker 4: Well? I think part of it is because of their
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  Speaker 4: ideological position, a sympathy with asylum seekers and refugees, which
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  Speaker 4: is fair enough, but their position is such that it
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  Speaker 4: flavors the decisions that they make. Remember Kevin Rudd was
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  Speaker 4: elected in two thousand and seven after giving an interview
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  Speaker 4: with me and Paul Kelly in which he said he
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  Speaker 4: would turn back boats and he didn't. That was a
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  Speaker 4: big failure. Then they changed temperate protection visas. Then they
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  Speaker 4: ended up then with even more people coming, tens of
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  Speaker 4: thousands of people, including more than a thousand who drowned
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  Speaker 4: at sea. They do not grasp what having a tough
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  Speaker 4: border protection actually means, not just to Australians but to
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  Speaker 4: the people trying to get here. For some its life
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  Speaker 4: and death. They do not appreciate this Ideologically, they can't
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  Speaker 4: accept it, and they try to kid themselves that they
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  Speaker 4: can trick people like Kevin Rudd saying oh yes, I'll
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  Speaker 4: turn back boats, and then he doesn't like the current
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  Speaker 4: government saying oh yes, we'll have these tough directives and
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  Speaker 4: so on. And we've also seen, of course, in the
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  Speaker 4: last few months, the return of people smugglers landing people
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  Speaker 4: on the North coast of Australia. Now it is as
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  Speaker 4: if labor can't help itself, and the polling is showing
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  Speaker 4: that not just crime but border protection is coming up
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  Speaker 4: as far as a major concern amongst the public. Cost
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  Speaker 4: of living still the big game, that'll be the big
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  Speaker 4: issue through to the next election. But border protection, crime, detainees,
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  Speaker 4: labor still can't do enough quickly enough to deal with it.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Dennis Shanahan is The Australian's National editor. Thanks for joining
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: us on the front and don't forget to check out
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: our newest investigative podcast, Bronwyn, reported by Headley Thomas. Check
• 12:13
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• 12:17
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• 12:23
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