| While we had the opportunity, we asked Godwin Hulse in our phone interview about that list of Ministers that Maria Marin has provided to the Senate Committee. As we told you, she started documenting the number of recommendations she was receiving from Ministers as the head of the Immigration Department at that time.
The frequency with which these recommendations were coming in from these Ministers, on behalf of their favored applicants, was a red-flag for Marin, and she started collecting that information to pass along to the Minister of Immigration.
It is the first time we've heard of such a list, and we attempted to get a copy yesterday, but we were told that it is not for public consumption at this time. Hulse was the Minister, and so we asked him about it today, and here's what he had to say:
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"He disclosed to the committee that the reason for doing this was to advise her ministry and her minister of the frequency of these particular ministers of government, because it was a red flag for her. Have you seen the list sir?"
Hon. Godwin Hulse, Former Minister of Immigration
"No I haven't seen the list she has provided, but what I do know is that during the time when all this was occurring, I made it very clear to director Marin as I made it clear to everyone and I make clear continuously, that nobody, no minister and I made the point not even the Prime Minister should have pressured her or anybody in the immigration department to do anything that is wrong. If anybody did, all they had to do was call me and I would deal with the matter. That was a statement I made then and it's a statement I continue to make. The matter of recommendations, I don't have to hand the list of who all made recommendations, but I think that we have to be very careful when we talk about recommendations because you have to remember that in the system that we are governed, representatives have that responsibility and a role to play. People will come to you all the time to ask for support, recommendations, etc. So you have to be careful what recommendation you are giving. There's nothing wrong in recommending. What is wrong is if you force or coerce or put pressure for something to do that is wrong. We always have to remember that. People come to me and say 'Minister can you try facilitate this, I've within 6 months, 1 year, etc.' There's nothing wrong in calling the director and saying 'X has an application for a year and what's happening?'. There's nothing wrong with that at all."
The Senate hearings continue next week Wednesday.
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