Barnaby Joyce appears to have blindsided Peter Dutton with his support for the Murugappan family to stay in Australia, linking his position to his pro-life stance, a newly-released letter reveals.
Joyce’s letter to Dutton in September 2019 includes both an apology to the then home affairs minister for not giving him more notice and an explanation he believes the family’s children should be able to stay because “a child has rights before they are born and after”.
Nades and Priya Murugappan arrived in Australia a decade ago as Tamil asylum seekers, and their daughters Kopika, seven, and Tharnicaa, eight, were born in Australia.
In March 2018, the family was given 10 minutes to pack before being removed from their home by border force agents in a 5am raid.
They were then moved to immigration detention in Melbourne before the government attempted to deport the family to Sri Lanka in 2019.
The deportation attempt was halted by a last-minute court injunction. The family fought in the federal court to stay in Australia, while the Morrison government refused to exercise a ministerial discretion to allow them to return to their town of Biloela.
In September 2019, Joyce broke ranks to call for the family to stay.
“First of all I wish to apologise for not informing you earlier about my disagreement with the decision regarding the Biloela family,” Joyce wrote to Dutton on 12 September 2019. “I have previously left you a phone message.”
“I just cannot justify in my mind how we can deport two people, the children, to a country they are not from and have never been to. It may be the law but I believe in this instance it is not just. I believe a child has rights before they are born and after.”
Joyce confirmed to Guardian Australia that this was a reference to his “pro-life” position.
“Individuals have rights that exist away from the intrusion of any other person. To send a kid … to a country they weren’t born in or been to is an intrusion in that person’s rights.
“I just thought: they’re liked by the community, they’re not on the dole, they’re not on the crime pages. Their kids were born in Australia. You may as well send them to Rwanda, because that’s another country they weren’t born in.”
The letter contains several redactions due to the home affairs department’s assessment full release “could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the Australian government’s international relations”.
These redactions relate to sections of the letter where Joyce said the government needs to “find a better alternative than where they are heading to” and raising concerns about the family’s safety.
In August 2022 the newly-elected Albanese government granted the family permanent residency.
