Immigration minister Andrew Giles is doing more backflips than a Romanian gymnast - but just can't nail his landing, writes PETER VAN ONSELEN

The theatre of the absurd continued today as besieged immigration minister Andrew Giles called a media conference to declare that Direction 99 is dead buried and cremated. 

It is being replaced by 'Direction 110' which will put community safety first,according to the minister. Details remain very scant. 

Which begs the obvious question why Direction 99 didn't do that to begin with. Because if it did it wouldn't need to be replaced. And the fact that it didn't should be enough to have gotten this minister sacked long ago. 

Yet there he was this morning,Andrew Giles announcing a new system to replace the botched and failed old one that he was responsible for. Both its design and its implementation. 

It was badly designed and poorly managed after its implementation.  

There should be no escaping responsibility for this mess,certainly not for Giles. The entire reason it has occurred is because of a change of policy Labor introduced

There should be no escaping responsibility for this mess,certainly not for Giles. The entire reason it has occurred is because of a change of policy Labor introduced. One they have now scurried away from and replaced.

Yet Giles won't take accountability,his boss won't act against him and they all are now playing the blame game instead. Giles says his department let him down. Albo says the Coalition had already made a meal of immigration when it was in government. 

That was more than two years ago now. The last election was in May 2022. At what point in time will this Labor government finally start taking accountability for what happens on its watch? 

NZAustralia PoliticsAnthony Albanese