Chief executive to explain his involvement in lobbying Peter Dutton to allow a woman into Australia

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, will give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday examining whether Peter Dutton misused his power by intervening to grant visas to two European au pairs.

McLachlan will appear before the Senate legal affairs committee in Canberra via teleconference to explain his involvement in lobbying the home affairs minister to overturn an au pair’s visa rejection.

Senior government officials will also give evidence but Dutton was not expected to attend.

Labor senator and committee member Kimberley Kitching said Dutton had been invited but was yet to respond.

Peter Dutton's au pair decisions 'anything but routine', Labor says Read more

“I think that until he does give a full explanation, there will be people questioning his integrity,” she told the ABC.

But prime minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday defended the minister’s expected absence, saying that “House members don’t appear at Senate inquiries - that’s been a rule as long as the parliament has been in practice”, he told Nine Network.

McLachlan’s appearance centres around the case of Alexandra Deuwel, who was detained at Adelaide airport in October 2015 after admitting that she intended to work in breach of her tourist visa for the grazier Callum MacLachlan, the AFL boss’s second cousin.

Leaked documents show that MacLachlan contacted Gillon McLachlan, who directed the AFL’s head of government relations and former Liberal staffer Jude Donnelly to forward an email from his cousin to Dutton’s chief of staff.

Donnelly is set to give evidence at the same time as her boss on Wednesday afternoon.

The home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo, and the Australian Border Force commissioner, Michael Outram, are listed to appear before the committee in the morning.

Dutton is also facing questions about a second au pair he saved from deportation, an Italian woman who was apparently planning to work for a former Queensland police colleague.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in both cases, saying he had no personal link to anyone involved.

The Labor senator and committee member Kimberley Kitching said Dutton and his staff had been invited to give evidence to the inquiry but were yet to respond.

“I think that until he does give a full explanation, there will be people questioning his integrity,” she told the ABC.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has backed Dutton in the lead-up to a Greens attempt to move a no-confidence motion against him when federal parliament resumes next week.