Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, and relates to the article in the Age today about the bridging visa review and the suggestion that work rights and Medicare access should be made available to asylum seekers on bridging visas on a case-by-case basis. Minister, isn’t that already the way in which it operates? I am aware of the case of a man who is on a bridging visa, has a master’s degree in social work and applied just two weeks ago to the department to work in a voluntary capacity in a community organisation. That application was rejected. I ask the minister: how would the government, implementing the suggestions in the Age article about the changes, change anything that currently operates in terms of the ability of the department to grant individual exemptions for access to Medicare and to work rights?