Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has claimed Andrew Giles’ tenure as Immigration Minister is on its last legs after the embattled politician spread misinformation about how his department tracked detainees.
Pressure has been mounting on the minister over the past few weeks when information arose about foreign offenders, including a convicted child rapist, being allowed to stay in Australia under Direction 99, which will be revised by Mr Giles.
The embattled minister copped further criticism on Monday after he spread misinformation by falsely claiming his department was using drones to monitor detainees released into the community from the High Court NZYQ ruling, just before Question Time.
The false claim was in response to questions about whether the government was doing enough to monitor detainees and protect the community.
Mr Giles attempted to blame his own department for the misinformation but the blunder has revealed the minister had no idea how detainees were being monitored.
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan told Sky News Australia on Tuesday it was “unclear” how Mr Giles was going to get out of his latest error.
“It’s really just a matter of time before Andrew Giles loses his job, in my view, and the problem for our country is we actually need a migration minister,” Senator Canavan told First Edition host Peter Stefanovic.
“We really have an absent-minded migration minister right now, at a time we face threats to our country, with all types of geopolitical tension. This needed to change yesterday, and the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility here.
“I mean, the worst thing about this latest blunder is the continuing attempt from this minister to blame his own department for his own mistakes. I mean, the accountability has got to stop with the minister and ultimately it’s got to stop with the Prime Minister.
“Questions have to be asked here about why the Prime Minister is not acting. He’s clearly got no ministerial accountability in his own cabinet and it seems like he’s protecting one of his own foot soldiers to protect his own position in jobs over protecting the national security of this country,” he said.
Senator Canavan said Mr Giles drew a connection to the drones after the department brief reportedly said it was satellite imagery that was used to track detainees.
He said Mr Giles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needed to “take responsibility” and “stop trying to blame others for their own mistakes”.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of what happened,” he said.
“What I believe is that Andrew Giles should take responsibility and not throw his own public servants under a bus.
“I mean, if that is true, it sounds like the brief did say satellite imagery, and, and it was Andrew Giles, who, who drew a connection to drones potentially.
“As I say that the buck is always gonna stop with the minister and the Prime Minister. They need to take responsibility here and stop trying to blame others for their own mistakes.”
On Monday, Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell said the minister has “got to go” after failing to front up to his incorrect claim about drones.
“How can this guy stay in this job? In all my 20 plus years covering politics (and) 30 years as a journalist, there’s only one outcome from this, and that’s that Andrew Giles loses his job,” he said.
“You cannot carry someone like this. If you do as a leader then you end up going down with them. It’s as simple as that.”
Mr Giles’ deflection of blame for his drone claim was not the first time he blamed department officials for his mistakes.
The Immigration Minister accused Home Affairs officials of not warning him about the criminals who were able to overturn their deportation under Direction 99.
“I’m working day and night to deal with these issues in terms of decisions like this not being notified… There have been decisions where the AAT has been overturning cancellation. They have been notified, cancellation submissions are underway,” Mr Giles told Sky News last week.
“We’ve seen that former directions issued by Peter Dutton and other Ministers led to similar outcomes at the AAT.
“Well, the Minister and his office needs to be notified (by Home Affairs) when decisions like this happen. That just didn’t happen.”