Aussie deputy opposition leader rapped over ‘foreign criminals’ post

Australia’s deputy opposition leader is under fire for a post claiming “foreign criminals” are attacking women, after an immigrant was detained for sexual assault — only for police to admit they got the wrong man.

In a tweet condemned by the government as “grubby”, Sussan Ley of the conservative Liberal Party sought to tap into voter concerns about crime and migration ahead of a weekend by-election in Dunkley, Victoria.

“If you do not want to see Australian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor,” the opposition Liberal Party’s deputy leader posted on Thursday on X.

The tweet remained on the social media platform yesterday, despite calls for her to take it down.

Ley posted the message after Victoria police arrested a 44year-old man — a former immigration detainee — and charged him with a number of sexual offences.

On Thursday, however, police apologised for arresting the wrong man, saying closed-circuit television images later identified a different, similar-looking man as the alleged culprit.

“It is clear the person arrested is not the offender,” Victoria police commander Mark Galliot said.

“We are sincerely sorry that this person has been detained.”

The wrongly arrested man was one of 149 immigration detainees — most with criminal records — who have been released from detention since a High Court last year ruled that they could not be held indefinitely.

“I find it extraordinary that Ms Ley has refused to delete that tweet,” the centre-left Labor Party Prime mminister Anthony Albanese said yesterday.