Courtney Allan
Legal

“I don’t know the answer to that”: Peter Dutton's awkward moment on Insiders

Peter Dutton has confirmed on ABC’s Insiders that he does not know whether anyone charged with serious offences has arrived in Australia under the medivac bill.

The bill makes it easier for refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru to come to Australia for medical treatment. However, when the bill was brought into action, it prompted the Coalition to warn that we would see “a flood of about 300 immediate transfers”, which could include paedophiles, rapists and murderers, according to news.com.au.

Dutton told fill-in host Annabel Crabb that “only just over 30” people have been transferred under the new legislation, but he “did not know” whether any were charged with serious offences.

“The fact is we’ve got people who are charged with serious offences on Manus, for example,” said Mr Dutton.

“I understand that, but have any of those people been brought here?” the host asked.

“Well I don’t know the answer to that question in terms of the concerns we have about individuals,” explained Dutton.

“How can you not know the answer to that question though? You were very worried,” Crabb fired back.

“We don’t bring anyone to our country where we can’t mitigate the risk, Annabel,” Dutton said.

He continued with:

“The medivac bill was set up on the basis that people wouldn’t be brought here if they needed medical attention. It was complete nonsense. We’ve brought hundreds of people that have required attention, and we’ve been able to reduce the number significantly off Manus and Nauru.”

The host also asked Dutton about a controversial transfer deal with the US that saw Australia take in two alleged murderers.

The two men in question were Rwandan men who were accused of butchering a group of tourists in the 1990s.

“Can you reassure us about those two men? You were talking about the danger of bringing alleged murderers from Nauru and Manus, but when you were making those comments you already knew we had brought these two guys who had confessed to the murder of western tourists in Uganda,” asked the host.

Mr Dutton said he was “not sure all those facts are correct”.

“You’ve got to look at all of the facts of individual cases, you’ve got to look at the historical perspective, around the circumstances, what’s happened in the intervening period,” he said.

“And that’s a different situation from somebody who has just sexually assaulted a girl on Manus in the last 12 months.

“So we’ll look at individual cases — AFP, ASIO, our international partners will inform the discussion properly,” Dutton explained.

“They’ll take all of the information into consideration and we base our decisions on that information, which is assessed and analysed as to whether or not there’s a risk here.

“We will not take somebody who we believe is a risk to the Australian people.”

Tags:
peter dutton, insiders, ABC insiders, AFP, ASIO, maunus island, manus island