Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. Last week, the minister claimed charges against hardcore criminals released from detention were being dropped due to a technical issue 'first identified late on Sunday 10 March'. Can the minister confirm that the legal issue was resolved by regulation on 8 December last year and that the minister's subsequent failure to reissue valid visas for more than three months has led directly to dangerous criminals being released from prison?

Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his question, and I say to him and every member of this House that every affected individual has been granted a visa with strict conditions. I say to him and everyone here that there was no lapse in monitoring or coverage in respect of any individual. There was no change to our system of strict visa conditions. As he said in his question, the issue was a technical one, which we have resolved. The issue dates back to 2013 and existed for nearly a decade under the former government, who failed to fix it, and, worse, they are playing politics as we get on with the job of fixing up the mess.