Water broke in the wee hours on the day of Headry’s flight back to her homeland Malaysia. She remembered clearly it was 3.40 am. The amniotic fluid flowed down, and her heart sank. “I cried and prayed that my baby could hold and not come out yet.” It was early February 2017. Her gynecologist, who Continue reading »
Immigration, refugees
One of the many appalling consequences of establishing the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), and transfer of immigration compliance functions to Australian Border Force (ABF), was an extraordinary cut back in immigration compliance activity. While many will celebrate the reduction in immigration compliance activity, this fails to recognise the purpose of immigration compliance is to Continue reading »
The 190 page Parkinson Immigration Review provides a very good blueprint for the future, considering the limitations placed on it by its terms of reference and timeline. The government has circulated a “Migration Strategy” document for consultation picking up broad concepts in the review’s recommendations. There is much more work to be done to decide Continue reading »
Anthony Albanese has in essence reversed the Howard Government’s 2001 changes to rules around NZ citizens living in Australia and their access to Australian citizenship. For such a major change, it is surprising it will be brought in quickly from 1 July 2023. Usually, major immigration policy changes take at least 9-12 months to design Continue reading »
The abolition of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is a crucial part of Attorney General Mark Dreyfus KC’s integrity platform. In the last decade of Coalition governments it had become overwhelmed by partisan appointments, creating a bedlam of incompetence and politically-motivated decisions. Many of these Coalition appointments were unqualified, with no legal training or experience: Continue reading »
It helps to apply all the lessons of the past correctly when considering learnings from a recent High Court decision about the use of personal Ministerial intervention powers under the Migration Act It saddens me to have to comment negatively on an article by one of my favourite national commentators. Jack Waterford’s article “The Home Continue reading »
This front-page story in The Australian on the blow out in net migration has created a frenzy of finger pointing, most of it ill-informed. It is true net migration is currently running at levels Australia has never before experienced – we are in uncharted waters as net migration for the 12 months to end March Continue reading »
In February 2023, the number of asylum cases in Australia for the first time exceeded 100,000. Despite the intense attention on boat arrivals for the last decade, note that very few of these 100,000 asylum cases are boat arrivals. The bulk arrived during an intense period of labour trafficking of Malaysian and Chinese nationals from Continue reading »
This editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests an independent body should determine which occupations are in shortage for employer sponsored visas rather than using labour market testing. That would be a mistake. It is entirely appropriate labour market testing should be abolished. It has always been a charade. It was why my former colleagues Continue reading »
The Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil, has declared Australia’s migration system is “broken. It is unstrategic. It is complex, expensive and slow. It is not delivering for business, for migrants, or for our population”. While no one is to be held accountable for this, not even the guy who has been in charge for Continue reading »