Family First leader Steve Fielding has slammed Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews for breaking a promise to meet with Robert Jovicic over his deportation case.

In a highly unusual move, the Senator has this afternoon disclosed details of his face-to-face meeting with Andrews over Jovicic, who was initially deported to Serbia on character grounds after committing a string of crimes related to his heroin addiction. The Immigration Minister continues to maintain that Jovicic must apply for Serbian citizenship if he wants to remain in Australia.

Andrews has now announced that he would not meet with Jovicic face-to-face, despite giving a guarantee to Fielding that he would.

Andrews told the ABC:

There are something like 3,600 interventions that come to the Minister each year… It is not appropriate for the Minister to meet all these people. It’s been a whole review process which has been gone through there are processes in place.

Fielding, along with several other high profile backbenchers, as reported by Crikey yesterday, had been in discussions with Jovicic and had a private meeting with Minister Andrews on Wednesday afternoon during which the Minister gave Senator Fielding a personal undertaking that he would meet Mr Jovicic.

“I was lobbying for a face-to-face meeting between the Minister and Mr Jovicic,” Senator Fielding says. “I spoke to the Minister on the phone on Wednesday and then met with him one-on-one in his office that afternoon.”

“During that meeting, the Minister told me he would meet Mr Jovicic but insisted it be one-on-one. We agreed that I would relay that information to Mr Jovicic’s representative who accepted the condition and contacted the Minister’s office to organise a time.

“But today I have read reports that Minister Andrews has said he will not meet with Mr Jovicic.

“I am extremely disappointed that Minister Andrews has broken his promise. The Government’s handling of this case, like the David Hicks case, is appalling.”

According to a press release issued by Fielding in the last hour, Family First will continue to lobby the Minister to honour his promise to meet with Mr Jovicic.