While Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Australian Border Force Commissioner blame the media for reading their press release and pledge to investigate their “processes,” a tipster tells us the history between the two goes back quite a distance:

“It seems not to be common media knowledge that Peter Dutton and Roman Quaedvlieg were both apparently very close during their time together in the Queensland Police in the early 1990s, where I worked also.”

Quaedvlieg joined Customs in 2013 as deputy CEO and was promoted to CEO in October 2014, before Dutton took the reins in last December’s reshuffle, and was announced as inaugural Commissioner of the new agency in May this year. Dutton was a police officer for nine years, leaving the force in 1999. According to his website, he worked in the Sex Offenders Squad, the Drug Squad and the National Crime Authority. Quaedvlieg was in the Queensland Police Force for 15 years, from 1985 to 2000. His profile on the Border Force’s website says he “performed duties in a range of positions investigating and managing serious and organised criminal activity”. We asked the Border Force if Dutton and Quadvlieg had worked together in their time at the Queensland Police Force, and if they knew each other at the time. The department told us that Dutton and Quaedvlieg didn’t work together, but didn’t address whether or not they knew each other while they served in the police ranks. Do you know more? Drop us a line; you can be anonymous if you wish.