Prime minister backs Peter Dutton, saying he cannot ‘in good conscience’ allow family that had settled in Biloela to stay

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The prime minister says he cannot “in good conscience” allow a Tamil couple and their Australian-born children facing deportation to stay in Australia, saying any softening of the government’s hardline boats policy would be exploited by people smugglers.

Despite public rallies over the weekend in support of the family and calls from Labor to show “compassion” in the case, Scott Morrison said he would not be granting an exception.

“That’s not how you run strong borders,” he said.

“I do understand the real feeling about this and the desire for there to be an exception but I know what the consequences are of allowing those exceptions.

“I know what happens when you send those messages back into those communities, whether it’s in Sri Lanka or the more than 10,000 people sitting in Indonesia right now who would get on a boat tomorrow if they thought this government was changing its position.”

Albanese calls on PM to let Biloela Tamil family stay as rallies held across Australia Read more

When asked if his government was out of step with the public mood, Morrison said: “It’s not about the public mood, it’s about what is the right decision in Australia’s national interests to ensure that the integrity of our border protection regime is maintained.”

The prime minister also encouraged the family to apply to come to Australia once they were retuned to Sri Lanka using “the same processes as everyone else anywhere else in the world”.

“I would hope they do, but they didn’t come to the country in the appropriate way, they have not been found to have an asylum claim, and to change our policy on this or to exercise intervention powers on this would be to send exactly the wrong message to those who are looking to sell tickets to vulnerable people looking to get on boats,” he said.

“It would send them the exact wrong message and that’s not something that I, in good conscience, can allow to happen.”

Play Video 1:35 Biloela family 'face danger to their lives in Sri Lanka', says Tamil refugee advocate – video

Morrison who, when immigration minister in the Abbott government, repeatedly refused to discuss “on-water matters”, defended the Coalition’s decision to publicise information about recent Sri Lankan boat interceptions in the Australian newspaper on Monday.

“The government releases information as it believes it’s important to do so. We followed a practice that we have in the past and I think that keeps the issue of the ever-present threat of illegal arrivals to Australia foremost in the public’s mind.”

Morrison’s comments come after Peter Dutton hit back at refugee advocates and “Labor opportunists” for trying to prevent the deportation of a Tamil couple and their Australian-born children to Sri Lanka, saying they are not refugees.

Arguing that there are 68 million displaced people who have a more “compelling” case to be resettled in Australia than the family who settled in Biloela, the home affairs minister used an opinion piece in the Courier-Mail on Monday to stress that the government needed to make “tough decisions”.

“The case of the family from Sri Lanka is also a complex case and has attracted a lot of media attention with many false claims by refugee advocates and Labor opportunists,” he said.

“Labor initially put them into detention and they were told all those years ago that, on the details they provided, they were not refugees under the UN definition so they would have to go home.

“They were told that they would never settle permanently in Australia, just like many others who arrived by boat. They never accepted that decision.”

Dutton’s intervention comes as lawyers make a last-ditch effort in the federal circuit court to prevent the deportation of the family who are now being held in detention on Christmas Island.

An interim injunction blocking the deportation of Priya, her husband, Nadesalingam, and their children Kopika, four, and Tharunicaa, two, has been extended until Wednesday.

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Lawyers acting for the family in the federal circuit court today were successful in having the two cases for the family combined ahead of the federal court hearing on Wednesday. The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, and the home affairs secretary, Mike Pezzullo, have also been added to the case.

Carina Ford, and immigration lawyer who is leading the case for the family, told journalists outside court even if the family wins on Wednesday, it will still require Dutton to have a “change of heart” when he considers the application for a visa for Tharunicaa.

“That’s the battle we have. Ultimately, we need a change of heart.”

Ford said on Monday that she didn’t believe that if Dutton intervened to grant a visa there would be a flow of boats to Australia.

“The reality is, anyone who arrives by boat today is processed offshore, that’s what the Migration Act says.”

In response to criticism about the campaign around the family having a detrimental effect on their case, Ford said the situation would have been the same if there was no campaign.

“We had tried to deal with the situation in-house. Obviously it had a media presence for so long anyway, pretty much since they were put in detention. It wasn’t working trying the other way either.”

She said while the overwhelming response from the public had been positive, her office had received some hate mail.

Rallies were held across the country on Sunday in support of the family, and the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has appealed directly to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to show compassion in the case.

Dutton also defended the release of information to the Australian about boat arrivals from Sri Lanka, saying there was an ongoing threat of a revival of the people-smuggling trade.

He denied the information had been released to make a political point. “We have provided a lot of detail since I’ve been minister at different points,” he told the Nine Network on Monday.

“I think we have publicly made available information in relation to every venture – we’ll continue to provide that information.

“We need to remind ourselves this is significant. People smugglers are watching everything that happens in Australia. I’m determined that we don’t have any death at sea.”

He said the “threat” out of Sri Lanka was concerning. “It is the reason Sri Lanka was the first country I visited after the election, to make sure we can keep these boats stopped,” he told the Courier-Mail. “This threat is very real.

“Labor wants people to believe that the threat of new boat arrivals is not real. It is. We are dealing with it every day.”

With Australian Associated Press