Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment and Water (Senate)) Share this | Hansard source

This afternoon, as we discuss the Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018, we are considering some reasonably simple and important amendments that the opposition supports. These include amendments to the Migration Act 1958, the Customs Act 1901 and the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978. I contend that while these amendments are important and rational, there is a great deal that is completely irrational and illogical going on within this government and within the Department of Home Affairs as it pertains to the management of both the Customs Act 1901 and the Migration Act 1958.

We've seen a Minister for Home Affairs who is woefully incompetent in his management of his portfolio responsibilities. I've seen this firsthand through my work on the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, where we've done numerous inquiries into issues that pertain to removals, to offshore processing and to other matters within the Migration Act. The member for Dickson has been voted previously the worst health minister in living memory and now, as Minister for Home Affairs, he is clearly very much outdoing himself.

We seem to be able to deal with things like the details in the Migration Act and the Customs Act for the removal of noncitizens—simple legislative amendments like that. But there is something missing in action from this government and the minister; there is an endemic failure to negotiate other third-country resettlement options for the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. We have haphazard management within this megadepartment. The minister's failings run deeply throughout this. We've seen a tick-and-flick approach to immigration, which has seen crisis after crisis and failure after failure.

One of the consistent complaints that I've heard, along with colleagues—and I know that this is something we experience in our electoral offices—is how visa-processing times within the Department of Home Affairs have completely blown out. I'm sure that members on the other side of this Senate are also receiving these complaints about processing times, which should be within this government's control.

For example, last year we saw processing times for 90 per cent of applications at 19 months. For the month ending 30 June this year the processing time for 90 per cent of applications for partner visas was 30 months. Just this week in the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee we've been looking at domestic violence and abuse that's facilitated, frankly, through the visa application process. It was really quite confronting to see the disconnect between the department's lack of acknowledgement of the issue and the lack of effectiveness of that response up against the very real and traumatic experiences of people subject to this kind of abuse. It was really clear, for example, how a long visa-processing time could be used to do things like facilitate dowry abuse by a potential spouse. Essentially, that is extorting money from a spouse.

On the other side it also means that couples are waiting 2½ years, putting their lives on hold, for their partner's visa to be approved. Partner visas are just one of the many types of visas available in Australia. We have a real issue with visa processing times. We call on the government to do something about this and fix this growing backlog. But it's very hard to see how they will be able to fix this backlog with the kinds of morale and staffing issues that exist, both within Australian Border Force and the immigration department.

We've seen the minister beat his chest about cutting Australia's total migration program and the number of permanent migrants settling in Australia. Again, we have legislation here before us that amends the Migration Act, the Customs Act and the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act but doesn't address the core issues of concern to our nation. They are worthy and important amendments in and of themselves, but this government time and time again fails to deal with the substantively important issues within immigration that should be dealt with. We still have vulnerable asylum seekers and children supposedly settled in Nauru but effectively detained there, who haven't yet had migration to America or other places offered to them, all of which is a sign of how long this government has taken to resolve our offshore processing issues.

In the last financial year we saw some 162,000 people granted permanent visas in Australia. That included those on skilled visas, who are absolutely keen to call this country home, and people who have been granted family reunion visas such as partner visas. In fact, when the government say they're cutting immigration numbers, in many cases these people are already in Australia on other kinds of visas, be they student visas, visitor visas or tourist visas. They might be here with a spouse. They might be here on holiday visas visiting their family. In fact, the population base is already here. The government talk about slashing migration numbers, but it's actually a completely false premise when, actually, the government have already granted visas to a great, great many of these people who are in Australia but have just not resolved their visa status, and that puts a great deal of hardship on Australian citizens and their families in managing these issues.

We've seen a reduction of 21,000 compared to previous years, and that was splashed as a so-called cut to Australia's permanent migration levels. But, just as I highlighted before, there were over 176,000 people on bridging visas—38,000 people more than compared with 30 June 2018. We know that bridging visas are just temporary. They allow people to stay in Australia after their current visas cease while they wait for their next visa applications to be processed or while they make arrangements to leave the country.

In speaking to this bill, we support the legislation but we note that there are great many significant issues in immigration, border protection and customs that this government is failing to resolve.