Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The amendments proposed in this bill support improved and fairer processes under the Migration Act. They improve the effectiveness of the notification of decisions and actions under the act, and reduce inefficient processes relating to the making of valid protection visa applications for dual citizens.

Schedule 1 to the bill comprises a number of commonsense technical amendments to strengthen the notification framework for visa related decisions. For cancellation related decisions and actions, the amendments will make it clear that the person affected must be notified in writing, and in the ways specified in the regulations. These amendments will effectively reinforce existing mechanisms which ensure the affected person has the best chance of actually receiving the relevant documents. This enables them to seek independent advice on their options and to avail themselves of natural justice or review rights.

Schedule 1 also introduces a substantial compliance framework in relation to notifications into the Migration Act. This is in response to a number of court decisions over time that have found notifications invalid for failing to comply strictly with prescribed requirements, despite clearly achieving their purpose, and where there was no prejudice to the recipient's legal rights. The measures proposed in this bill will ensure that, where a minor or technical error exists in the content of the notification, which has not resulted in any substantial prejudice to the person's legal rights, then the notification requirements are taken to have been met. This commonsense approach, which already exists in other legislative frameworks, will provide greater certainty in relation to the notification of visa related decisions and actions for both the minister and the recipient of such notices.

These amendments will reduce uncertainty about highly technical notification issues, and will not diminish the person's ability to fully exercise all available legal rights. Importantly, this bill does not purport to fix errors of substance in notifications, or errors that substantially prejudice a person's legal rights.

Importantly, these changes ensure that people who receive visa notifications, including relevant information about any natural justice or review rights, will not be disadvantaged. These changes provide greater certainty that notifications relied upon are valid, and a person's legal rights are upheld.

The amendments in schedule 2 to the bill will remove the prohibition on nationals of two or more countries from lodging a valid application for a protection visa. Subdivision AK of division 3 of part 2 of the Migration Act currently prevents any person who is a national of two or more countries from lodging a valid application for a protection visa, but allows the minister to lift the bar if it is in the public interest to do so. The removal of this subdivision from the Migration Act will improve administrative efficiencies across the onshore protection visa program and streamline the application process for dual nationals seeking protection in Australia.

From 1 July 2019 to 24 March 2023, 401 prospective protection visa applicants were assessed as being impacted by the application bar. However, in the same period, in excess of 55,000 protection visa applicants had to be assessed against this provision before their application could be progressed for further processing.

Of the 401 prospective protection visa applicants impacted by the application bar, 196, almost half, were minors. Currently, dual or multinational minors included on a valid protection visa application lodged by a parent or other family member are barred from making a valid application without the intervention of the minister. The removal of this subdivision will ensure that family units can make a valid application for a protection visa together, and minimise the risk of family separation.

This ensures that dual citizens are afforded the same benefits as those with single nationality, by having protection claims to be considered comprehensively under the relevant statutory criteria, without requiring the minister to consider lifting the bar.

The government's position remains unchanged: those who can avail themselves of protection from a third country because of nationality or some other right to re-enter and reside in the third country, should seek protection from the third country instead of applying for a protection visa in Australia.

The amendments in this bill do not make substantive changes to the notification framework, nor do they change the eligibility requirements for the grant of a protection visa. They provide for greater effectiveness and streamlining of processes and create a fairer and more accountable framework.

I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.