Ian Macphee calls for Peter Dutton’s powers to be reined in and for bills to expand them further to be stopped
Peter Dutton has sweeping and unchecked powers that are beyond the review of courts, are unjust and “un-Australian” and must be wound back, a former immigration minister has said.
The comments, by the former Fraser-era immigration minister Ian Macphee, come in a report that has examined the discretionary powers of immigration ministers and found them to be dramatically increasing, and adversely affecting asylum seekers.
The report by Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project, which was released on Thursday, called for current powers to be reined in and for bills to expand them even further to be stopped.
In a foreword to to the report, McPhee said he was “disgusted by the power accorded to current ministers regarding the lives of people fleeing persecution”.
