Peter van Onselen, political editor of Daily Mail Australia
Why are Andrew Giles and Clare O’Neil missing from action? Perhaps because seeing and hearing them can only hurt Labor more in the eyes of Australians.
His ministerial performance to date has been poor at best. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is calling on the Prime Minister to fire the couple and it’s hard to disagree.
You know your Immigration and Home Affairs ministers are on the nose when the Labor think tank determines it is best to bring the Prime Minister out to answer questions about the problems in their portfolios after the week he has had.
I’m sure Anthony Albanese would have preferred to go underground today, but someone had to respond to allegations that government mishandling of a detainee’s release led to the alleged assault of Ninette Simons, a 73-year-old Perth woman .
The pictures of the horrific facial injuries he suffered say more than any words.
All the Prime Minister could do was apologize for what happened, which is more courtesy than domestic violence campaigner Sarah Williams received after her war of words with the Prime Minister over the weekend.
The opposition is calling for Albo to fire both Giles and O’Neil, but when it comes to Giles that is unlikely. He is a close factional ally of the prime minister and one of only three MPs Albo identifies as a true friend in parliament.
Things will have to get much worse for him to be released, unless that includes a post-parliamentary appointment to ease the pain.
Ninette Simons, 73, was allegedly attacked by three intruders in her home, including a recently released immigration detainee.
O’Neil is a different story. A member of the Victorian right faction, she is no friend of the Prime Minister.
He also tried to orchestrate a generational change as Jim Chalmers’ replacement after the surprise 2019 election defeat to face Albo and Richard Marles.
Albanese has a long memory when it comes to political maneuvering of this kind.
That said, demoting O’Neil would be an admission that Labor is failing in a portfolio area where it does not want to admit defeat. And Albanese can hardly demote his cabinet minister and not his close friend Giles.
O’Neil has used Question Time to try to blame the immigration and detention problems he “inherited” on the previous coalition government, conveniently wrapping the attack around Dutton as the former minister responsible.
But it hasn’t worked, since it was the Coalition that stopped the ships that are slowly sailing again.
By the way, that’s another potential problem brewing. And the mass release of detainees following a recent Superior Court ruling (with accusations of subsequent crimes and incidents) has totally undermined the credibility of O’Neil’s attempt to avoid shifting blame.
Perhaps the solution is a reshuffle at the end of the year, or better yet, during the parliamentary winter recess.
The opposition calls for the dismissal of Home Secretary Clare O’Neil
Like it or not, the Labor Party can’t keep Giles and O’Neil hidden forever, so what is the strategy behind doing it now and how long can it last?
The answer is simple: they expect progress towards the Federal Budget to grab the headlines in the coming days and weeks, burying the bad news of what has happened in the wallets of Giles and O’Neil.
The government also knows that when parliament resumes it will be Budget week, meaning Question Time will naturally be dominated by financial matters that will allow Giles and O’Neil to survive if they make it through the next few days.
Labor strategists are also concerned that putting Giles and O’Neil in front of the cameras will fuel interest in their bungling and detract from what Treasurer Jim Chalmers hopes will be a better couple of months in the polls as the benefits of the budget arrive. including income tax cuts starting July 1.
A well-received budget could even open the door to early elections later this year, even though Albo has promised to continue his mandate.
Some within Labor ranks think going to the polls early is a necessary evil because the economy could worsen in 2025 as cost-of-living pressures continue to take their toll.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is a close factional ally of the Prime Minister and one of only three MPs Anthony Albanese identifies as a true friend in parliament.