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The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, has revealed he has re-cancelled the visa of a Sudanese man charged with murder and has sought urgent advice about other possible re-cancellations.
Giles revealed the moves to deal with the fallout of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal restoring the visas of people convicted of serious crimes in question time on Tuesday.
The Coalition has been pursuing Giles over ministerial direction 99, a change in visa cancellation rules that requires the decision-maker to consider the strength, nature and duration of the non-citizen’s ties to Australia.
Ties to Australia are considered alongside four other “primary considerations”, including protecting the community and “whether the conduct engaged in constituted family violence”.
In question time, Giles was peppered with opposition questions about six non-citizens whose visas were restored by the AAT, including Emmanuel Saki, a Sudanese man charged with murder after he was released from immigration detention, and a New Zealand-born man referred to as CHCY, convicted of raping his stepdaughter.
“Direction 99 does not decrease the importance placed on considerations such as expectations of the Australian community and the protection of the community from crime,” Giles replied.
Giles said that the visas were “cancelled and remain cancelled by my department in accordance with ministerial direction 99”, but the decisions had then been overturned by the independent AAT.
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In CHCY’s case, Giles told the house his view is the visa “should still be cancelled” and that he had prioritised a number of cases for “urgent” reconsideration of cancellation. The Migration Act contains personal ministerial powers of cancellation that are not subject to merits review to the AAT.
In Saki’s case, Giles expressed his “thoughts” for the family of the alleged victim, a 22-year-old man killed in Acacia Ridge in Brisbane in May. Giles noted Saki “is now in custody with a police investigation under way”.
“I also want to inform the house that I have cancelled the individual’s visa and, as this matter is before the courts, I’ll say nothing further about this matter.”
Asked why he had not intervened in March when the AAT gave Saki his visa back, Giles said he had asked his department for an explanation of why he had not been informed and revealed it will look at “all these cases” that are under consideration for cancellation.
When asked about further cases, Giles repeated that the requirement to consider community safety “remains unchanged under this government”, rejecting the Coalition’s charge that the rules had been “watered down”.
The home affairs department secretary, Stephanie Foster, took responsibility for failing to brief the minister’s office about AAT decisions overturning visa cancellations of those with serious convictions.
Foster told Senate estimates the department “had agreed a protocol, to bring to his attention cases of a particular nature” but then failed to “adequately resource” that function, resulting in delays.
“I regret very much that this has happened. I was not aware we were failing to meet our obligations.”
Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday that Giles was advised by his department that the changes were intended to target people without “serious offending or family violence” and would “not have a substantive effect” on non-citizens convicted of more serious crimes.
Earlier, the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, told reporters in Canberra that the AAT “follows the direction of the minister” and under the new rules a non-citizen’s ties must be considered as a primary consideration “even if the offending is severe”.
Paterson told Sky News that the AAT had “not just” restored the visa of one non-citizen with serious convictions, “which you might put down to a single member of the AAT or a bad decision, but they’ve done it on dozens of occasions”.
Paterson called on the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to sack Giles and tear up direction 99.
