Wild moment Nat Barr is forced to cut tense interview short as tensions flare over latest immigration bungle

Nat Barr has been forced to pull the plug on an uncomfortably tense interview with the Home Secretary and a Liberal senator after the pair refused to stop feuding over the government’s latest immigration hassle.

Labor Minister Clare O’Neil and Finance Minister Jane Hume appeared on Sunrise on Wednesday morning, where Barr asked how the revocation of high-profile criminal Kevin Farrugia’s visa was revoked.

The TV presenter was due to ask one more question after the visa discussion, but instead ended the interview early after being unable to get a word out amid Ms O’Neil and Ms Hume’s bickering.

‘You know what no one likes, arguing. I think we’ll leave it at that. See you next week,” Barr said as the camera suddenly left the interview and went to co-host Matt Shirvington.

News broke this week that Farrugia, 51, is also an employee of Tony Mokbel, Australia’s most notorious crime lordwas spared from deportation by the Administrative Court of Appeal (AAT).

Nat Barr has been forced to pull the plug after an uncomfortably tense interview with Home Secretary Clare O’Neil (left) and Liberal Senator Jane Hume (right), after the pair refused to stop feuding over the country’s latest immigration issue government

Farrugia, whose serial crime began in 1993, has been convicted of reckless conduct endangering life, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms and drug trafficking.

The Maltese is behind bars but could be released in May next year.

His visa was canceled but this has since been revoked as part of Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ Direction 99, which was issued early last year.

The guidance requires the Immigration Minister or a body, including the AAT, to take into account an individual’s ties to the community when considering revoking a convicted criminal’s visa.

The decision means greater tolerance will be shown to immigrants who have committed serious crimes and have had their visas revoked if they have “lived in the Australian community for most of their lives or from a very young age”.

“Clare, is it going to be difficult to continue defending Minister Giles?” Barr asked Mrs. O’Neil.

Ms O’Neil immediately laid the blame on former immigration minister and opposition leader Peter Dutton, saying he had the opportunity to revoke Farrugia’s visa when he was in charge but failed to do so.

“You probably saw last week that while Peter Dutton was Home Secretary and Immigration Minister, 1,300 convicted criminals were released from immigration detention,” she said.

Mrs O’Neil was quickly interrupted by Mrs Hume who said: ‘Oh Clare, you are shameless!’

The Home Secretary appeared unfazed by the interruption, saying Mr Dutton had refused to answer questions on the subject.

“I would say that if the test for Jane and her colleagues for ministers in our government had been Peter Dutton, he would not have lasted a week,” she continued.

Ms Hume interrupted again, saying Mr Dutton had ‘lasted far longer than a week’ and canceled more than 6,500 visas in his time.

“You’re shameless Clare,” she said.

Barr then tried to ask for clarity on whether Mr Dutton could have revoked Farrugia’s visa, but received no clear answer from Ms Hume as she continued to attack Labour.

“It’s hard to stick around on this issue in this government when you can’t answer the question of whether your government could have done it,” Barr said, as Ms. Hume continued to speak about her.

Barr then tried to change the subject and move on to the last question, but the two ministers refused to back down and continued to argue.

The Sunrise presenter then ended the interview, with both ministers suddenly muted and taken off camera.

More to come