Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I now have to do a Senator Fierravanti-Wells impersonation and talk under wet cement to take us out to two o’clock! As I understand it, the opposition will be seeking to move amendments to the suggested approach that the government has put forward to deal with those persons who have a special requirement to qualify for citizenship but would otherwise be precluded by looking to expand ministerial powers. The Labor Party and the Rudd Labor government prefer the approach we have adopted, which is to specify the circumstances upon which those persons qualify and to lay that out in the act and in the regulations. We think that just expanding ministerial powers without proper reference in the legislation and without proper guidance for decision makers encourages the sort of behaviour we have seen in ministerial intervention in protection and other visa cases, whereby there has been an enormous growth in applications from a couple of hundred when the changes were made to, now, more than 5,000 per year.

I fundamentally believe that a decision about a person’s right to citizenship ought to be determined by this parliament. It ought to be laid down in the act and in the regulations, and it should not be a question of the personal fiat of the then minister to determine who should be a citizen or not of this country. I much prefer that and I think it is a much sounder approach for us to set out the guidance and the legal requirements in the act and have the department apply those against the applications made by those seeking citizenship. I think that allows the parliament to properly express its view.

Progress reported.