Labor minister denies direction 99 was a mistake and says community safety ‘number one priority’

Federal cabinet minister Murray Watt also claims Labor has deported more criminals in its first year than under Peter Dutton’s reign

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A new ministerial direction on deporting foreign-born criminals will prioritise “community safety” over their ties to Australia, federal cabinet minister Murray Watt has said as he denied the government made a mistake with the controversial “direction 99”.

But mystery still surrounds the government’s purported use of drones to monitor people released from immigration detention, with no confirmation of which agency is operating them.

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