Frustrated Natalie Barr erupts at Anthony Albanese’s home affairs minister as fresh criminal asylum seeker bungle is exposed: ‘How on Earth has this happened?’

Anthony Albanese’s government is under fire over a major immigration bungle in which 149 asylum seekers were given invalid visas after being released from detention by a High Court ruling.

The shocking administrative bungle means 10 prisoners – many of whom had criminal records and were rounded up by authorities for allegedly breaching their strict visa conditions – can avoid punishment.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles this morning refused to say who was responsible for the blunder.

It led to a fierce row between Sunrise host Natalie Barr and Home Secretary Clare O’Neil on Wednesday morning, with the Seven Network host demanding to know: ‘How on earth did this happen?’

Ms O’Neil blamed a problem on a law passed by parliament under Tony Abbott’s government in 2013.

“The issue meant that ‘visas issued under (the law), whether under our government or previous governments, were effectively immediately invalid,'” she argued.

“The consequence of that is that we’ve had to redo visas for people who were issued as a consequence of the High Court decision last year,” Ms O’Neil said.

“The important thing for your viewers is that community safety has been the absolute priority in everything we’ve dealt with on this issue.”

Barr asked Mrs O’Neil: ‘So you’re saying you fixed the loophole?’

“We fixed the loophole Nat,” she insisted. ‘This was a problem in the original legislation passed by Parliament in 2013.

‘What we’ve done is Australian government lawyers have identified a problem, we’ve moved quickly to address it. All these visas have now been re-issued by the Australian Government with tough conditions.’

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume dismissed Ms O’Neil’s argument – blaming the ‘incompetent’ and ‘weak’ Albanian government.

“This was not an issue at all under our government,” Senator Hume said.

‘It sounds to me Nat, if it can be quickly corrected to ministerial regulation, there was not necessarily a problem with the original visa legislation.

‘We didn’t release criminal detainees in the community. It sounds like a continuation of ministerial incompetence from Minister (Andrew) Giles.’

‘This is a story about incompetence from go to woe. I can sense Clare’s frustration here with her Deputy Minister Andrew Giles.

‘Frankly, the fact that Anthony Albanese has done anything in response to this pile shows that this is a weak Labor government, a weak government in terms of border security and community security.’

Barr told ministers: ‘People at home just want it sorted.

‘And it’s really hard to figure out which lawyers did which wrong thing. We just need you to fix it and get the rules right.’

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Giles refused to answer who was responsible for the blunder when asked, but said the error was only made in 2013.

“This is not a question of blame, it’s a question of seeking to solve problems,” he told the ABC’s AM show on Wednesday.

It comes after the revelation that immigration detainees have committed 27 alleged crimes since their release in November, prompting calls for Mr Giles’ resignation.

The detainees were released in November in the wake of a landmark High Court ruling that found indefinite detention illegal.