Dutton has hit back at claims from former border force chief, calling them ‘entirely false’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The former head of the Australian Border Force Roman Quaedvlieg has claimed he fielded a phone call from Peter Dutton’s office seeking help for a “mate” of the minister over an Italian au pair in detention at Brisbane airport.

The letter sent to the inquiry examining Dutton’s decision to intervene in two cases involving European au pairs facing deportation in 2015 calls into question Dutton’s evidence to parliament that he did not know the employers of the au pairs.

But Dutton has hit back , labelling Quaedvlieg’s claims “entirely false” and accusing him of fabricating evidence because he is “bitter about the loss of his job” as head of Border Force.

In a blistering statement, Dutton said both Quaedvlieg’s claims and a Fairfax Media article detailing them were misleading and defamatory.

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The letter states that in mid June 2015 Quaedvlieg received a call from Dutton’s chief of staff, Craig Maclachlan, who said he was ringing on behalf of the home affairs minister, who he referred to as “the boss”.

According to the letter, Maclachlan said that “the boss’s mate in Brisbane” had encountered a problem with a prospective au pair, who had been detained at the airport “due to an anomaly with her visa”.

Quaedvlieg said he did not ask for details of the minister’s friend as he was confident he could identify the case. Within an hour, he received details of the au pair’s case including that she had been detained because of evidence “she was intending to work for reward in Australia in breach of her visa entitlements”.

Maclachlan reportedly asked: “What needs to be done to fix this – can the boss overturn it?” Quaedvlieg replied that he could task the departmental liaison officer to get a brief from the department with options to exercise ministerial intervention.

Quaedvlieg said he did not become aware that Dutton had intervened in the case until recently.

Dutton responded in a statement that it was “impossible for this conversation to have occurred” because Maclachlan was not employed by him until 7 October 2015 and Maclachlan could not have had knowledge of the matter because he was not employed by the department of immigration either.

“Moreover, I did not instruct any member of my staff to call Mr Quaedvlieg in relation to this matter. Nor did any member of my staff speak to Mr Quaedvlieg about it.”

Quaedvlieg was sacked for misbehaviour in March and is the subject of a corruption investigation over allegations he helped a junior staff member with whom he was in a relationship get a job at the Sydney airport.

Dutton suggested that Quaedvlieg had made an “enormous error in judgment by submitting false evidence” to the committee as a result of the pressure of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

Quaedvlieg’s letter was sent under parliamentary privilege to the chair of the inquiry, Labor senator Louise Pratt, after Wednesday’s hearings and published by the committee on Thursday afternoon.

Sources close to Quaedvlieg previously told Guardian Australia the former border force chief was willing to correct the record in relation to the au pair saga.

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The home affairs minister has ruled out any personal connection to the person seeking to host the Italian au pair, but last week Guardian Australia revealed the man was a former police force colleague of Dutton’s. That prompted the Greens and Labor to accuse the minister of misleading parliament.

Earlier, Labor’s immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, said it was now clear that Dutton had “misled the House of Representatives”.

“The media reports clearly show that Peter Dutton knew the employer of the Brisbane au pair. It was his mate,” Neumann said on Thursday.

“Misleading the House of Representatives is a serious and sackable offence. Prime Minister Scott Morrison must demand an explanation today of Minister Peter Dutton. If Peter Dutton won’t explain himself today, his position becomes untenable.”

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Dutton has previously said he had not spoken to the former police colleague in about two decades.

On Thursday, he told Sydney radio 2GB there was a “disaffected former senior Australian Border Force official who leaks this information out”.

“Good luck to him, if that's what he wants to do, he is obviously very close to the Labor party,” he said. Dutton did not name the official.