Peter Dutton, the Home Affairs Minister, has denied claims that he misled Parliament regarding the granting of two visas for foreign au pairs.
Mr Dutton has faced scrutiny over his discretionary decision to approve visas for two foreign women who had been stopped by immigration officials that said that they would be in breach of their tourist visas should they begin working as au pairs.
A motion of no confidence was alluded to by Greens MP Adam Bandt, who alleges that Mr Dutton misled the Parliament regarding the issue of the au pairs.
Earlier in the year, Mr Bandt asked if Mr Dutton was able to rule out any personal connections between himself and the people helped by his au pairs decision. Mr Dutton said on record that he has no personal connection.
In March, he told the House of Representatives that he could “categorically rule out” any kind of personal relationship with the employers of either of the two women.
However, it has emerged that one of those employers was serving in the Queensland Police at the same time as Mr Dutton.
He has now doubled down on his denial, saying that Mr Bandt’s claim that he misled Parliament was baseless.
Mr Dutton then argued that simply because he worked in the same police force as one of the employers that it did not count as a personal connection.
Mr Dutton’s decision to grant working visas to the two au pairs is being investigated by a Senate committee.
One submission to the committee comes from former Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg who said that he had been contacted by one of Dutton’s head staffers asking what could be done to assist “the boss’s mate”.
Mr Dutton has responded by claiming Mr Quaedvlieg is lying out of bitterness for losing his job.