Labor and Greens accuse home affairs minister of misleading parliament when he said he had no personal connection with the au pair’s employer

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Greens and Labor will attempt to move a motion of no-confidence in the home affairs minister Peter Dutton when parliament resumes next week, inflicting an early test of the new prime minister’s capacity to control the House.

One crossbencher, Andrew Wilkie, is on board for the vote, and negotiations continue with Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie. The numbers are tight in the House with the government down one courtesy of Malcolm Turnbull resigning as an MP.

While Dutton denied on Monday misleading the parliament about his use of ministerial discretion in the granting of tourist visas to au pairs, including one working for a former Queensland police colleague, the lower house Greens MP Adam Bandt said the minister has a case to answer.

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“Peter Dutton told parliament he had no personal connection with the au pair’s potential employer, but then he went on radio and said the man was a former police colleague,” Bandt said Monday.

“Peter Dutton has since doubled down, confirming that he knew the man he helped while maintaining there was nothing wrong with his statement to parliament.”

Bandt said the motion was about more than Dutton’s “reprehensible” immigration policies or the merits of his use of discretion. “It’s about whether ministers have to be honest in their declarations to parliament and the Australian people.”

The shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, concurred. “Peter Dutton has been given the opportunity to explain this. This is serious. On the face of it, it appears that Peter Dutton has misled the parliament.

“For these reasons Labor will be supporting this motion – if the Greens political party hadn’t sought to move this motion, Labor would have moved it.”

Under sustained pressure over the use of ministerial powers in 2015, when he approved visitor visas to an Italian and a French au pair facing deportation, Dutton on Monday said he did not mislead the parliament about the au pair controversy.

The home affairs minister was asked in parliament in March, when reports of the approvals first surfaced, whether he could rule out “any personal connection or any other relationship between you and the intended employer of either of the au pairs”.

Dutton responded: “The answer is yes.” He said he had received no personal benefit from the decision and “I don’t know these people”.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that Dutton saved an Italian au pair from deportation who was due to work for a former Queensland police colleague.

On Monday Dutton told reporters he answered the question in parliament in the context of suggestions his family benefited from the decision. “The allegation was that my family had – was going to employ someone who was an au pair.

“My wife works, but I can tell you she’s a great wife and a great mother. We never had an au pair, she never asked for one. We have never been in a situation to employ an au pair and made an active decision not to.

“That was the initial mud thrown. There was no personal gain for me, or my wife or children.”

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Dutton said he exercised discretion in many matters in the immigration portfolio based on the merits of each case. “But to say I had some personal link or that I was acting on behalf of, you know, somebody that I was personally associated with, is complete nonsense.”

A search of parliamentary records by Guardian Australia suggests immigration ministers have intervened to grant more than 30 visitors visas to tourists to Australia over the past six years.

Dutton on Monday signalled he was gathering data about his political opponents, who he blamed for fomenting the controversy. He said he’d kept a list of Labor MPs who have approached him with “quirky” visa cases.

He said Chris Bowen, the shadow treasurer who was an immigration minister in the last Labor government, “has written to me hundreds of times asking me to intervene”.

“Has he got a personal connection? You would need to ask him that. Would it help his electorate? You would need to ask him that,” Dutton said.