Labor frontbencher and members of parliamentary committee plan to visit Biloela Tamil family held in immigration detention
Labor senator Kristina Keneally will make her own way to Christmas Island to visit a Tamil family who have been held in immigration detention since 2019, after Peter Dutton cancelled the use of a government aircraft for the trip.
Keneally was due to visit Christmas Island on 19 April as part of a parliamentary committee looking at the availability and access to communications infrastructure in Australia’s external territories, and had applied for, and received, permission to visit Priya and Nades Murugappan and their daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa. The trip had been planned for some time and the committee was due to depart on Sunday.
BREAKING:
4:50pm – @AusBorderForce confirms my permission to visit the #hometobilo family
5:12pm – I receive an email: “the Defence Minister has determined that the Special Purpose Aircraft can no longer be made available for the Committee’s travel”
Dutton cancelled the trip. https://t.co/gGOSwAhUdj
This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.