Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move the amendment standing in my name and in the name of the Australian Greens on Sheet 1809:

(1) Page 7 (after line 33), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 2 — Refusal or cancellation of visa on character grounds

Migration Act 1958

1 Subsection 501(2)

Omit "The Minister may", substitute "Subject to subsection (5A), the Minister may".

2 Subsection 501(3)

Omit "The Minister may", substitute "Subject to subsection (5A), the Minister may".

3 Subsection 501(3A)

Omit "The Minister must", substitute "Subject to subsection (5A), the Minister must".

4 After subsection 501(5)

Insert:

(5A) The Minister may not, under this section, cancel a visa that has been granted to a person if the person:

(a) has resided in Australia for a continuous period of at least 10 years; or

(b) arrived in Australia from overseas when the person was less than 10 years old.

5 After subsection 501(6)

Insert:

(6A) Conduct that was engaged in by a person when the person was less than 18 years old must not be taken into account in determining whether the person passes the character test.

This amendment will ensure children and people who for all intents and purposes are Australian cannot have their visas cancelled on character grounds. This amendment will achieve this aim by legislating that no-one who has lived in Australia for more than 10 years, was under the age of 10 when they migrated to Australia, arrived in Australia before the age of 10 or was under the age of 18 when they offended can have their visa cancelled on character grounds.

These new laws have led to thousands of people—over 6½ thousand since the Migration Amendment (Character and General Visa Cancellation) Bill 2014 was enacted—many who've lived most of their lives in Australia, having their visas cancelled. They've often been cancelled for minor offences like drink driving and after they have paid the penalty for those offences as imposed by the courts. These people often have histories of trauma or of disability. They are often refugees or stateless people. They are then sent either into detention or to countries they do not know and where they have no family or social support networks. These are punishments—for entire families, sometimes—that are unjust, that don't fit the crime and, frankly, that are un-Australian.

The character test laws have seen a disproportionate amount of New Zealanders deported from Australia. Close to 3,000 New Zealanders have been deported on character grounds within the last decade, when former immigration minister and now opposition leader, Mr Dutton, significantly broadened the scope of the character test under section 501 and introduced mandatory visa cancellations under section 501(3A). This is well over a third—in fact, it's nearly half—of all section 501 deportations to New Zealand.

Up until 1998, when the Howard government introduced a character test into section 501 of the Migration Act, any migrant who had spent 10 years or more in Australia was protected from deportation. A similar system that recognises time spent living in the country still operates to this very day in New Zealand. As former New Zealand prime minister Ms Ardern told former Prime Minister Morrison during her trip to Australia in 2019, while expressing what she described as her concern and disappointment with Australia's visa cancellations policy:

We have seen cases where there is almost no connection of an individual to New Zealand who has been deported … There are some examples that will not make any sense to a fair-minded person … I consider that to be a corrosive part of that policy. And it's having a corrosive effect on our relationship.

Colleagues, let's be clear about this: this is having a corrosive effect om Australia's relationship with New Zealand. New Zealand shares many, many cultural attributes with Australia. Many Australians would describe New Zealand as a sibling country to Australia, and yet, according to Ms Ardern, these matters are having a corrosive effect on our relationship. Prime Minister Ardern finished her comments with a request for Australia to 'send back Kiwis—genuine Kiwis—but do not deport your people and your problems.' With this amendment, that is exactly what we are attempting to address, and we call on the government to support it.