‘Freed’ au pair row deepens

Sydney – Australia’s home affairs minister was under mounting pressure yesterday to formally explain why he personally intervened to help au pairs from France and Italy after their tourist visas were cancelled.

Peter Dutton, the driving force behind a bitter Liberal party coup that unseated Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister last week, has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

But the scandal is deepening with a Senate committee inquiry due to scrutinise his decisions next week at the request of opposition politicians.

In the first case Dutton, then immigration minister and known for his support of hardline policies, used his discretionary powers to free a Frenchwoman from detention in November 2015, and allow her to stay in the country.

The move was made after an appeal to his office by Australian Football League boss Gillon McLachlan, documents released under freedom of information showed.

The woman was reportedly planning to work as a live-in babysitter for a relative of McLachlan, but did not have the proper paperwork when she arrived.

National broadcaster ABC said Dutton’s intervention also helped a wealthy family that was also a Liberal party donor. The opposition party has been demanding to know whether their donations influenced his decision. –