‘Jobs for mates’ scandal is third headache for Dutton

PETER Dutton is facing claims he pressed a senior customs official to help two Queensland cops secure jobs in a new border force agency he was setting up.

The Home Affairs Minister is already under pressure over the European au pair affair and constitutional questions over his personal links to publicly funded childcare centres.

Now Mr Dutton (pictured) is again in hot water over claims he lobbied former Australian Border Force chief Roman Quaedvlieg to get jobs for two policemen. One of the policemen was a good friend of Mr Dutton and another was the son of corrupt former Queensland police commissioner Terry Lewis, Fairfax Media reported yesterday.

The Minister allegedly raised the cases with Mr Quaedvlieg in 2014 after being lobbied by a member of a prominent Queensland family with links to the Coalition.

Mr Quaedvlieg said records would show he met with both men during his time as ABF commissioner.

“The circumstances surrounding how I came to meet them, and the contents of those discussions, are not something I intend to comment on,” he told Fairfax.

Mr Dutton did not deny the intervention but rejected any suggestion of misbehaviour.

“Any suggestion that the Minister has acted inappropriately is ridiculous,” his spokesman said.