An American woman could be deported from Australia for picking up a wombat by the same Labor government that has released hundreds of illegal immigrant criminals, – including murderers, rapists and paedophiles – over the past 16 months.
A viral video of US hunting influencer Sam Jones picking up a wombat joey has even been criticised by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and on Thursday Immigration Minister Tony Burke confirmed her visa was under review.
The hardline response comes after Mr Albanese and Mr Burke’s predecessor Andrew Giles released 291 convicted criminals from immigration detention after a High Court ruling ordered a “stateless” Rohingya refugee who raped a 10-year-old boy be set free, saying he couldn’t be detained indefinitely.
That cohort is comprised of violent criminals who were refusing to be deported with the assistance of human rights lawyers and NGOs, and includes killers, sex predators, paedophiles, drug traffickers and domestic violence offenders, and last month it was revealed 219 are receiving cash payments from the taxpayer.
The left-wing Labor government has repeatedly said it intends to deport the illegal immigrant criminals and has imposed strict curfews and electronic monitoring on a large proportion of the group, but they remain in Australia on bridging visas more than a year after the November 2023 court ruling.
But when it came to the case of Ms Jones, who has been criticised for temporarily separating the wombat joey from its mother, Mr Burke said he was looking into whether immigration law had been breached and what action could be taken against her.
“Either way [if there has been a breach or not], given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers,” Mr Burke said.
“I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return.”
Mr Albanese also weighed in with a snarky comment: “I would suggest to this so-called influencer. Maybe she might try some other Australian animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.
“Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother. See how you go then.”
And Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is under fire for her attendance at a Labor ‘Chinese Town Hall’ in Melbourne where White Australians were refused entry, was also asked whether Ms Jones should have her visa cancelled.
“I will leave those sorts of questions to Tony Burke. But really, leave the wombat alone,” she said.
Mr Burke has spent the last few weeks travelling across the country to grant citizenship to more than 13,000 immigrants so they can vote in the upcoming federal election.
The wombat video has been deleted after a corporate media-led pile-on, and the whereabouts of Ms Jones are unknown.
Header image: Left, the viral wombat video (Instagram). Right, Tony Burke marches with a crowd of immigrants to campaign for hate speech laws (Facebook).
