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Mike Hosking: Clock is ticking for Iain Lees-Galloway

Author
Mike Hosking ,
Publish Date
Wed, 14 Nov 2018, 11:01AM
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. Photo / Doug Sherring
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. Photo / Doug Sherring

Mike Hosking: Clock is ticking for Iain Lees-Galloway

Author
Mike Hosking ,
Publish Date
Wed, 14 Nov 2018, 11:01AM

It would appear we might, I emphasise might, be getting to the bottom of the Sroubek case. It would seem Immigration didn’t include some information on bail. Bail variation, bail applications, and didn’t include the fact he went back to the Czech Republic despite apparently fearing for his life.

The immediate issue here is that Immigration on this very programme said last Friday they did provide all the information the minister needed. Of course, subsequent to that we found out the Minister didn’t read it all, and took less than an hour.

But that aside if he didn’t know Sroubek went back to the Republic is that the escape clause Lees-Galloway is looking for?

In other words, he only gave him residency because he thought he was fearful for your life, but if he had known Sroubek went back, it never would have been granted.

If that's it, if that’s the smoking gun, if that’s the magic Lees-Galloway has been relying on, if that's the bit that the Prime Minister was relying on when she said "read between the lines," then I am not sure we are any further down the track at all.

Because that still doesn’t make it our problem. The bloke is a liar, a crook, a drug smuggler, a gang associate. The fact he allegedly feared for his life, even if it was true, doesn’t need to be our issue.

And if that’s all Lees-Galloway was thinking about then the decision he made around residency is still bad and the wrong call.

Best thing he can do, if there is more to it than that, is brief Mark Mitchell who has written to him, got no response until the media inquired, at which point Lees-Galloway said he'd brief him at an appropriate time to which he was asked, "when's appropriate?"

He said nothing.

That indicates to most of us, I would have thought, that Mitchell isn't getting a briefing given what Lees-Galloway has is nothing good, nothing to get him out of trouble, nothing that would provide an explanation that was remotely acceptable.

So is Immigration then going to get hung out to dry in a mad burst of spin one Friday afternoon? In an attempt to get an inept Minister off the hook?

Once this is all out, the simple question is, is a bloke who is a crook worth giving residency to or not?

And was part of the consideration his so-called safety?

If that’s it, and there's nothing more, Lees-Galloway has got to go.

And as each day goes by, and each day provides more and more insight, not one little bit of that insight suggests Lees-Galloway has made the right decision. In fact the more we know, the more we conclude it is, in fact, quite the opposite.

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