For­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Gary Grif­fith is call­ing for the im­me­di­ate re­moval of the Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty fol­low­ing the re­lease of in­di­vid­u­als who were de­tained for weeks un­der Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders.

In a state­ment, Grif­fith said the de­ci­sion to de­tain the in­di­vid­u­als, fol­lowed by the or­der for their re­lease, rep­re­sent­ed “to­tal in­com­pe­tence at the high­est lev­el” and warned that the mat­ter could cost tax­pay­ers mil­lions of dol­lars.

Grif­fith crit­i­cised the Min­is­ter’s de­ci­sion to au­tho­rise the de­ten­tions based on “cred­i­ble in­tel­li­gence” with­out charges be­ing laid, ar­gu­ing that the in­for­ma­tion should have been de­vel­oped in­to ev­i­dence ca­pa­ble of sup­port­ing crim­i­nal charges.