Former Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, who drew flak for canceling Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef's work visa, spent over 200,000 Australian dollars on media monitoring, most of it after the bungled case.
A senate committee was today told that the costs of media monitoring by the former minister, who cancelled Haneef's visa on character grounds even after terror charges against him were dropped, showed he racked up a bill of over 211,000 Australian dollars during his tenure.
A monthly breakdown of Andrews' media-monitoring costs provided by Immigration Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe showed the amount spent on media monitoring rose in the second half of the calendar year, the Age reported.
Linking the expenditure on media watch with the failed terror case against Haneef that grabbed headlines, Metcalfe told the hearing, "I would note that there was quite a significant level of expenditure across the months of August, September, October and November. Haneef's case was considered by the minister in July and he remained a significant issue for a period thereafter."
"So without having checked the individual invoices, I think it is a fair assumption that some of that media-monitoring activity would have related to the significant level of media interest in Haneef's case," he said.
Haneef was arrested by police at Brisbane airport on July 2 last year, while he was on his way to India and charged with supporting a terrorist organisation 12 days later in connection with the failed United Kingdom car bombings. The charges were dropped a fortnight later but Andrews cancelled Haneef's work visa, forcing him to return to Bangalore.
The full bench of the Federal Court in December upheld a judge's earlier decision to reinstate his work visa, clearing the way for Haneef to return to Australia.