Dutton to face scrutiny over au pair saga

Home Affairs Minister is expected to face more questions on Tuesday over his decision to use ministerial discretion to grant visas on public interest grounds to two young tourists who came to Australia to perform baby-sitting duties.

Mr Dutton was asked about his June 17, 2015, decision to grant a tourist visa to a foreign au pair during question time in the lower house on Monday.

The minister also referred to a second case he intervened in on November 1, 2015.

The minister insisted he doesn't know the individuals involved.

"Our family does not employ an au pair," Mr Dutton told parliament.

"My wife takes very good care in my absence, I might say, of our three children. We have never employed a nanny."

Mr Dutton said he has intervened in hundreds of cases to either grant or cancel visas and takes the responsibility "extremely seriously".

He said he thought it was inappropriate for the two young women to be deported.

"I thought if they gave an undertaking they wouldn't work I would grant the tourist visa, they would stay, which they did, they didn't overstay, they returned back home," Mr Dutton told parliament.

Labor's immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann has asked Mr Dutton for a departmental briefing on the cases.

Greens senator Nick McKim, who also asked questions about the matter in Senate question time, is not satisfied Mr Dutton or Communications Minister Mitch Fifield adequately explained why the visa decisions were in the public interest.

"We will be pursuing the matter further on the floor of the Senate," he told AAP.

In the first case, a young woman had her eVisitor visa cancelled at the Brisbane International Airport which rendered her an "unlawful non-citizen" under migration laws

AAP understands she made a phone call to a contact and was granted a new visa which allowed her to lawfully enter Australia.

A document tabled in parliament shows the woman was granted a tourist visa (subclass 600) after Mr Dutton used his ministerial discretion to intervene in the case.

An Immigration official familiar with the visa cancellation process at the airport was "very surprised".

"It is hard to see how the grant of the new visa ... was genuinely in the public interest," the source told AAP.

"It is not very common for visas to be granted at the border after the visa a person arrived on is cancelled."

The source said usually people were put on the next available flight home.

In the second case, Mr Dutton intervened to grant a visitor visa (subclass 600) to another au pair which lasted three months, despite warnings from his department.

"There are clear indications that x is intending to work in Australia and thus, the grant of a visitor visa is of high risk," said a heavily blacked out ministerial submission obtained by AAP under freedom of information laws.

The submission also had references to Brisbane and Queensland airports.

Australian Border Force noted the woman had been "counselled previously with respect to work restrictions," when suspicions about her intentions were aroused on a previous arrival on October 31, 2015.

Analysis of ministerial discretion statements for 2015 tabled in parliament shows the bulk of these visas are granted to asylum seekers requiring bridging or temporary humanitarian visas or former residents returning to Australia.

A former department official told AAP under the ministerial discretion powers "the minister is God. He can do whatever he likes."

An au pair is a person under 30 who travels abroad for a temporary period and lives with a host family. They generally receive free board, meals and spending money in exchange for child care and light housework duties.

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