The theater of the absurd continued today when embattled Immigration Minister Andrew Giles called a press conference to declare that Address 99 is buried and cremated.
According to the minister, it will be replaced by ‘Directorate 110’, which will prioritize the safety of the community. Details remain very scarce.
Which raises the obvious question of why Directorate 99 didn’t do that to begin with. Because if it were, it would not need to be replaced. And the fact that it wasn’t should be enough for this minister to be fired a long time ago.
Yet there he was this morning, Andrew Giles announcing a new system to replace the old, failing system he was responsible for. Both its design and its implementation.
It was poorly designed and poorly managed after its implementation.
The theater of the absurd continued today when embattled Immigration Minister Andrew Giles (pictured) called a press conference to declare that Address 99 is buried and cremated.
Address 99 was introduced by the new Labor government more than a year ago, designed specifically to allay New Zealand’s concerns that too many of its citizens who committed crimes in this country were being sent home.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was proud to defend him as he stood alongside then-Kiwi Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, who made the announcement.
The only problem was that it didn’t prioritize community safety like Directorate 110 will now. It also applies to everyone arriving overseas, not just New Zealanders.
It resulted in a number of examples of criminals not having their visas canceled because Directorate 99 did not prioritize community safety.
Rapists, child sexual predators, and domestic abusers were allowed to stay rather than be deported.
The same minister who presided over this mess (adding it with inaccurate statements such as that the perpetrators were “drone surveillance”) is now responsible for fixing it.
They were able to rely on their ties to family and community to force the commissioners of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing their cases to accept the construction of Address 99 and allow them to stay.
One Sudanese resident used his ties to the local Aboriginal community to justify his stay. Convicted domestic violence abusers used ties to family to stay.
You couldn’t make this up.
The deputy director of the AAT, Stephen Boyle, was quite explicit in setting out this reality by setting out in writing the reasons for some of his decisions. His hand forced from him by the stupidity of Directorate 99.
At least it’s gone and replaced by Directorate 110, if the same minister can now be trusted to oversee the new rules.
It is completely ridiculous that the same minister who presided over this mess – adding to it with inaccurate statements such as that the perpetrators were “being watched by drones” – is now responsible for sorting it out.
Giles has not shown any remorse for his failures and has used question time to try to return insults to the opposition instead of taking responsibility.
His inability has been clearly exposed publicly in recent weeks. But since he is a great friend of Albo and is in the same faction, he has survived.
Also because the Prime Minister was intimately involved in the introduction of this disastrous policy.
The Prime Minister did not want to reward the opposition for complaining about Giles, putting a stubborn political position before doing the right thing.
There should be no escape from responsibility for this disaster, and certainly not for Giles. The only reason this has happened is because of a policy change introduced by Labour.
There should be no escape from responsibility for this disaster, and certainly not for Giles. The only reason this has happened is because of a policy change introduced by the Labor Party. One they have now moved away from and replaced.
However, Giles won’t take responsibility, his boss won’t act against him, and now everyone is playing the blame game. Giles says his department let him down. Albo says the Coalition had already eaten up immigration when it was in government.
That was more than two years ago. The last election was in May 2022. At what point will this Labor government finally start taking responsibility for what happens on its watch?
