The federal government is using drones to track former immigration detainees who have been released into the community as the furore over the government's handling of visas for people with criminal records continues.
Embattled Immigration Minister Andrew Giles yesterday vowed to scrap more visas for foreign-born criminals, saying he has cancelled eight and is reviewing dozens more.
"The first job is making sure that visas which need to be cancelled are cancelled," Giles said.
Thirty separate visas that had been cancelled were re-approved by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), and have since been put under review once again.
Giles confirmed that he already cancelled eight of the visas.
"These are cases with some serious offending - some really serious offending where the decision frankly does not meet my expectations," he said in an interview with Sky News.
In that same interview, Giles revealed the government is using drone technology to track former immigration detainees who were released back into the community following a High Court decision.
"They are being monitored… there is a quarter of a billion dollars that we've invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies," he said.
"That's enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people. We know where they are."
The matter of visa cancellations for convicted criminals was at the forefront of yet another fiery question time today, after the government said yesterday it would overrule a much-criticised ministerial direction issued by Giles last year.
That has raised some concerns in New Zealand, which had pushed for Australia to stop deporting New Zealand-born criminals who had spent most of their lives this side of the Tasman before Giles' decision.
"We do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand, whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.
The Federal Government blames the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for ultimately reinstating visas that had been cancelled by the Commonwealth.
Facing questions today, the independent body took responsibility for those decisions but maintained they were made based on the direction issued by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.
"We seek to hear the evidence, listen to the submissions, make findings of fact, apply the law, apply directions and come to a conclusion," AAT registrar Michael Hawkins said.
