Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I had concluded my answer last night, but I might take this opportunity to respond to a couple of things we took on notice.

To provide further clarity, the High Court in Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth held that actions of the staff of the department are subject to constitutionally entrenched judicial review. Accordingly, a person affected by a decision of a departmental officer under the new provision will have the ability to seek review of that decision in the courts. The courts will have a role in interpreting the scope of the substantial compliance provision, which will be binding on departmental staff.

In terms of changes to the migration regulations flowing from this bill, they would be disallowable. The bill does not allow for the specific making of regulations to further define terms contained within the bill. I have not been able to get to a specific answer on the number of noncompliant notices in the time frame, but where a notice has been found to be defective it will be reissued. We will endeavour to come back to you with a more fulsome answer at a later date.

In terms of the question just put then, regarding the provisions of this bill and their impact on humanitarian visa applications by dual citizens, a dual national who has made an application for a visa, where a finding as to their dual nationality is pending as at the commencement date, will not need to make a new application. Their existing application will become valid, subject to them meeting all other criteria. A person who has previously made an invalid application for a protection visa on the basis of a finding that the person is a dual national will need to make a new application for a protection visa and will need to meet all other validity criteria. The department will directly contact those persons with pending requests for ministerial intervention, to notify them that they can make a new application, and the department will publish information about making a new application on its website as well.