🗞️Albanese Expresses Concern Over Bail Decision in Assault Case

The prime minister is accused of covering up for a freed immigration detainee who allegedly assaulted a grandmother in Perth while he was out on bail.

The 43-year-old man who was freed from custody after a November ruling by the High Court was one of three individuals accused of assaulting Ninette Simmons and her husband Philip. Anthony Albanese expressed concern over the prosecution's choice to not object to the detainee's bail after a reoffence had occurred.

“That wasn't a decision of Government, Nat. And I'm saying that I am just as upset about that decision as you are. I think that lacks common sense. And that is one of the things, no doubt, that will be on the agenda today at the meeting of Attorney-Generals that will be chaired by Mark Dreyfus in Canberra, bringing together all the states and territories to look at bail laws, to look at these issues,” he told Seven's Sunrise program on Friday.

He added,”I think that's a wrong decision by that board, but they make the decisions.”

When questioned, "Who's in charge of that?"

“Well, they make the decisions independent. One of the things that we have in this country is a separation there. And look, the whole NZYQ case was something that we opposed, that decision of the High Court. The Government has had to deal with the implications of that and the results of that. We've been trying to do that. We're bringing in, we've brought in a range of laws. We have a law before the Senate now that we wanted to pass in March when Parliament was sitting, and that's been held up with another inquiry by a coalition of the Liberals, Nats and Greens. So, we want to take as strong an action as possible here. We recognise that community safety is the absolute priority. And my heart goes out to Ninette. No one should be subject to that sort of violence. It is an outrage that this occurred. And my Government is committed to doing what we can to address these issues,” He disclosed.

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Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton said that the community's outrage over the attack was understandable.

“The Minister has responsibility here. The first charge of the Prime Minister of our country is to keep people safe, not to put them in harm's way, and that's what's happened with Ninette. People are right to be angry about it and upset. This could be anybody's grandmother or mother, and the Prime Minister's office going out there telling people lies is just not acceptable. If the Minister doesn't have responsibility here, I don't know who does,”He told Nine's Today program.

To recall, The three allegedly also tied Philip, the 76-year-old husband of Simmons, behind his back and assaulted him before taking $200,000 worth of jewellery, according to Western Australian police.

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