The immigration minister has offered to speak to an elderly couple allegedly assaulted by a freed immigration detainee during a house invasion.
Western Australian police say a trio assaulted Ninette Simmons, 73, and her 76-year-old husband Philip, alleging his hands were tied behind his back while they stole $200,000 in jewellery.
One of the alleged perpetrators was part of a cohort of immigration detainees at the centre of a federal political fight.
Police say Ninette Simmons was brutally injured during a robbery at her Perth home. Source: Supplied / WA Police
The 43-year-old man was one of 154 men released from immigration detention in November after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful.
Noting he was limited in what he could say about a case before the court, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles said he spoke to Western Australia's police minister about the case.
"How we can better support the victims, including if they wish to speak to me directly to reiterate that's something that I'm very keen to do ... if that's something that's of interest to them," he told ABC radio on Tuesday.
The Opposition has seized on the alleged attack to criticise the government for not monitoring the released cohort more closely or applying to have any of them put back behind bars under emergency powers that passed parliament late last year.
"I want to see the prime minister sack the two ministers responsible for this dreadful circumstance," Opposition leader Peter Dutton said.
Giles hit back on that call, accusing the Opposition leader of disrespecting the rule of law, highlighting that the government had opposed the High Court decision that released the detainees but ultimately had to abide by the ruling.
"He's misleading the Australian people," he said.
The government has been given the power to apply to put a detainee back behind bars if the person is ruled to be too high of a risk to community safety — even if they hadn't yet committed a crime.
Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan chastised the government for not applying for an order.
"The government has sat on its hands, not acted on this regime knowing that the chances of reoffending by these hardened criminals was high," he told ABC TV.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles defended the amount of time it took to apply for an order, saying the less than five months since the legislation was put into place was shorter than the coalition used to apply for an order under a similar regime.
Tehan argued the regimes were different.
While Giles couldn't comment on individual applications so legal proceedings wouldn't be prejudiced, he said that "applications are well underway to respond to preventative detention for the most serious and violent offenders".
