Alex Hawke rejects idea Biloela family children would've gotten different treatment if named 'Jane or Sally'

In an interview with SBS News, the Immigration Minister said he rejected the suggestion made by re-elected Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce last week.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Source: AAP

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has hit back at Barnaby Joyce’s suggestion two children from an asylum-seeking Tamil family would've been treated differently by his government if they were named “Jane or Sally”.

Before being re-elected Nationals leader this week, Mr Joyce questioned his own government’s treatment of the Murugappan family - mother Priya, father Nades, and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa - from the backbench.

“Tharnicaa and Kopika were born in Australia. Maybe if their names were Jane and Sally we’d think twice about sending them back to another country which they’re not from,” Mr Joyce told the Seven Network last week.

“Why not send them to Southern Sudan, why not send them to Rwanda to Belarus? They’re also countries they were never born in.”

In an interview with SBS News on Wednesday, Mr Hawke said he and the government rejected the remarks. 

“I saw those comments, I reject them and the government rejected those comments,” he said.

“They were unfair and mischaracterised.”

Mr Hawke said he has had "a lot to do with the Sri Lankan community" in Australia.

“It does not weigh in any shape or form what their names are or what ethnicity they are or what country they have come from,” he said.

“It’s about whether we owe them protection and whether they fit into our legal migration framework and whether they are indeed owed protection by Australia or not.”

Mr Hawke also announced on Wednesday he had issued short-term bridging visas to the three oldest Murugappans, providing them work and study rights while they reside in Perth.

Four-year-old Tharnicaa - who was removed from detention on Christmas Island two weeks ago for urgent medical treatment - did not receive a bridging visa.

The family was reunited in Perth last week.

They had been kept in Australia's immigration detention system for more than three years, appealing against attempts to deport them.

Their fight against deportation is ongoing.

The Murugappans were living in the Queensland town of Biloela before Priya and Nades' bridging visas expired, after which the family was taken into detention during a night raid in 2018.

Nades and Priya have said they face persecution if deported to Sri Lanka. Both Tamils, they fled their homeland after the country's civil war and came separately by boat to Australia.

The government has repeatedly said the family is not eligible to settle in Australia. 

Anna Henderson is the chief political correspondent for SBS News.