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A second man charged over the alleged bashing of a Perth woman is a former immigration detainee who was released into the community while the Coalition was in government in 2020.
Seyed Younes Tahami is accused of being one of three people involved the violent home invasion in April which left 73-year-old Ninette Simons bloodied, bruised and unconscious.
He has been charged with aggravated assault, robbery and impersonating a police officer, alongside another former detainee, Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan.
The confronting photo of Ms Simons's severe injuries fuelled an already intense political debate over community safety in the wake of a High Court ruling which led to the release of more than 150 asylum seekers from immigration detention.
After news of Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan's arrest, senior members of the federal opposition accused the government of failing Ms Simons and her husband Phil, who was tied up during the alleged attack.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Coalition now had questions to answer about its own decisions involving Seyed Younes Tahami, and its repeated demands for ministerial scalps as a result of the assault on Mr and Mrs Simons.
"The reports are very clear — of the three people that entered Ninette Simon's home and engaged in that brutal attack, one of the alleged perpetrators was someone released from detention when Peter Dutton was home affairs minister in 2020, who was not subject to any ongoing scrutiny, and that person has an extraordinary record of behaviour which is of enormous concern," Mr Albanese told reporters in Launceston on Saturday.
"It's up to Peter Dutton to explain how this occurred, why this occurred, and to reconcile the statements that have been made by shadow minister [James] Paterson, shadow minister [Dan] Tehan and Peter Dutton himself — how the statements that they've made this week can be reconciled with this fact.
"People will draw their own conclusions from the gap that is there between the Coalition's rhetoric on this and their actions when they were in government."
Seyed Younes Tahami was jailed in 2018 for drug possession, and his protection visa was cancelled in February 2019.
That decision was overturned in January 2020 by a bureaucrat in the Home Affairs department who was delegated the decision-making power by the minister of the day.
The Iranian man was released into the community and later charged with a number of other offences including theft, fraud and drug possession.
He is next due to appear in court over the alleged assault of Ms Simons in early June.
Opposition frontbencher Michael Sukkar tried to distance the Coalition from the situation.
"What I understand is no decision of the former government, no ministerial discretion or decision was undertaken by any Coalition minister to release that person," he said on Melbourne.
"So if that's the suggestion, that's false."
Mr Sukkar accused the government of trying to put up a political smokescreen.
"The second accused that the minister for home affairs is now trying to use to distract from her own utter incompetence and failures is a person who arrived here by boat under Labor," he said.
"I mean, it's quite extraordinary that she would point to him as some kind of excuse for her failures.
"I think it just shows how much they've lost control and how little concern they have for the jobs that they're entrusted to do by the Australian people."
He argued the questions over the government's handling of more than 150 people released from detention, including Majid Jamshidi Doukoshkan, was still a live issue.
"The cohort we're talking about have been released on Labor's watch," Mr Sukkar said.
"We were promised that they would have ankle bracelets, we were promised that they would be monitored, we were promised that they would not pose a threat to the community, and what have we seen since?"
On Friday, it was revealed fewer than half of the so-called NZYQ cohort are subject to electronic ankle bracelet monitoring and curfews.