Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me begin by saying that the coalition will support the passage of the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (2025 Measures No. 2) Bill 2025. That is because, fundamentally, the content of the bill is aimed at doing two worthwhile things. The first is to modernise and clarify Australia's laws regarding the collection and use of biometric facial images under the Migration Act 1958 and the Australian Citizenship Act 2007. The second is to provide the Minister for Home Affairs with a new discretionary power to exempt certain individuals from meeting the physical residence requirement that ordinarily applies in the first two years after a citizenship application is made. These are relatively modest and pragmatic updates to existing laws, and, on the surface, they are likely to give expression to valuable improvements. Of course, they also reflect the need for ongoing vigilance to return to Australia's migration and citizenship laws, not least in order to ensure they keep pace with technology and align with global best practice and that the administration of our borders and citizenship systems remains effective, secure and just.

The biometric provisions in this bill are in large part a continuation of reforms that were first enacted by the former coalition government. More specifically, it was the coalition that, in 2015, legislated on the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Biometric Integrity) Bill. That landmark legislation established the very foundations of the biometric systems that now underpin Australia's border operations, including SmartGate automation and the broader facial recognition architecture in use at our airports. A decade has passed since those reforms were legislated, and, unsurprisingly, biometric technology has advanced substantially during that time. Criminal networks involved in human trafficking, people smuggling and identity fraud are now more sophisticated than ever, and our verification systems must, accordingly, evolve just as quickly.

The content of this bill essentially updates and refines parts of our laws to reflect those realities and imperatives. Foremost among the changes incorporated within the legislation are clarifications of what constitutes a lawful facial image under both the Migration Act and the Citizenship Act. By modernising these provisions, the bill brings Australian law into closer alignment with international biometric standards. In the process, it is designed to make it more difficult for identity fraudsters and human traffickers to exploit emerging gaps in our existing framework.

More specifically, the bill makes it clear that facial images used for identity verification can lawfully include the full face alone or the face together with parts of the neck and shoulders, depending on how the image is captured. This clarification is important because modern, automated systems such as airports SmartGates, kiosk check-ins and digital visa processing platforms often record cropped or variably framed images. Under the current law, that has created uncertainty about whether such images technically meet statutory requirements. These amendments should resolve that doubt. They will confirm that existing records remain valid and that future image collection will be legally sound and operationally consistent across agencies.

On each of these grounds, the effects of the bill should be to strengthen the integrity of biometric matching, reduce the risk of administrative error and ensure that Australia's systems are compatible with the standards widely used internationally. It should complement other national initiatives such as the National Driver License Facial Recognition Solution—a system that, once operational, is meant to better integrate Commonwealth and state facial databases to improve information-sharing and establish additional protections against identity crime.

Schedule 2 of this bill deals with a different though not entirely unrelated issue the physical residence requirement for aspiring Australian citizens. Currently, Australian citizenship law requires that individuals granted citizenship must be physically present in Australia for at least 180 days within the two years immediately following their conferral. That requirement makes sense in the overwhelming majority of cases, as it encourages genuine connection and integration into the Australian community. However, there are some circumstances in which the rule can be unreasonably restrictive and problematic—most notably for elite sportspeople, who regularly train and compete on foreign soil.

The passage of this bill would provide the Minister for Home Affairs with a new discretionary power to exempt such individuals where it is assessed that it is justifiable to do so, especially where they would otherwise be required to travel to and from Australia on a frequent basis simply in order to try to meet the existing obligations. The coalition recognises the practicality of this measure. It essence, it introduces improved flexibility for relatively exceptional circumstances. That said, we naturally expect that this new ministerial power will be exercised with appropriate care and caution and that necessary oversight measures will be put in place in order to prevent the potential for misappropriation or abuse. It must ultimately be the case that these exemptions are not used to create backdoor arrangements or any other form of preferential treatment in relation to Australian citizenship for particular individuals or groups, but we are prepared to support at least in principle what appears overall to be a sensible fix.

At the same time, it must be said that many of the legal ambiguities this bill seeks to correct, particularly those addressed through deeming provisions that retroactively validate past actions, are almost certainly the result of problems that have been around for a while due to yet more administrative mismanagement and delays under Labor's watch. Over the past 3½ years we have seen repeated wanton examples of retrospective clean-ups and ad hoc fixes across the Home Affairs and Immigration portfolios—evidence of a government playing catch-up rather than leading with competence. Indeed, over the past 3½ years the Albanese government's record in home affairs has been one of disarray, delays and some dysfunction. From the High Court's ruling in the NZYQ decision that exposed shocking gaps in the management of immigration detainees, to stripping the Home Affairs portfolio of its many functions and then restoring them again much later, and to repeated failures in visa processing, border protection and cybersecurity coordination, the government has demonstrated a lack of control. Ministerial infighting, reshuffles, endless reviews and reactive management of one crisis after another have become hallmarks of this administration. Australians have seen detainees released without adequate safeguards; critical infrastructure vulnerabilities left unaddressed; extremely dangerous criminals released, only, in some cases, to commit even more alarming crimes; and the integrity of migration programs eroded by paralysis.

In essence, this government's approach has too often been reactive, opaque and, in some cases, incompetent and piecemeal. When Labor encounters administrative or legal difficulties, its instinct is to ignore the seriousness of the problem and then, some time later, rush in here to legislate after the fact—to paper over cracks rather than address the foundations. Given that extreme secrecy and a wholesale lack of accountability have been such staples of this government's administration, it's probably right to imagine that the same has happened again in the lead-up to the introduction of this legislation—for anyone outside the bureaucracy knows at this point that the creation of this bill would be the by-product of yet more mistakes rather than any kind of forward-leaning development. We see here again, at the very least, multiple provisions targeted at retrospectively correcting past actions. Overall, this government's approach to home affairs has been a story of confusion, complacency and some chaos. It has represented a very stark contrast to the years before that, when the coalition delivered strength, order and decisiveness.

To return to where I began, the coalition will support the passage of this bill. Whilst its origins may well lie in more quick fixes from Labor, its content, especially around the biometric updates, is generally sound. It is also broadly consistent, in this particular case, with the basic policy direction established under the previous coalition government. We therefore welcome the improvements it should make to the management of Australia's migration, border and citizenship systems, and we hope the changes the bill delivers will represent at least one small step in the right direction in the Home Affairs portfolio for the Labor Party. I thank the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.