The Morrison Government is again attempting to pass damaging and unnecessary laws that would give the Immigration Minister more power to cancel visas and deport people who live in Australia. It is the third time the Coalition has attempted to pass the laws. 

The Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill 2021 would see more people automatically deemed to fail the character test and would expose them to indefinite detention and deportation from Australia. 

Since the Coalition Government expanded the visa cancellation powers in 2014, the number of people detained due to visa cancellation has increased dramatically, often resulting in the separation of families. 

Scott Cosgriff, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said: 

“This is the third attempt by the Morrison Government to try and breathe life into this flawed and unnecessary legislation. If passed, these new laws would lead to more people being detained, including people who arrived in Australia as children and have lived almost all their lives here. 

“Parliament must reject this desperate power grab in the dying days of this parliamentary term.” 

When scrutinizing the powers in the bill in 2021 Parliament’s own Human Rights Committee, chaired by Nationals MP Anne Webster, stated that, “It is not clear that there is a ‘pressing and substantial need’ for the measures” in the bill.  

The Minister currently has sweeping powers to detain and deport people based on their conduct or character.  

“We all witnessed in the first weeks of the year the extent of the Minister’s existing powers to detain and deport people. These powers require stronger safeguards; not weaker scrutiny. 

“The bill would lower an already excessively low threshold for the Minister to be able to rip a person away from their families, lock them up in a detention centre and deport them to a country that is not their home, even when that person has lived in Australia for decades. If passed, it would allow the detention and deportation of long-term residents for conduct that did not otherwise lead to a significant criminal penalty. 
 
“Instead of flogging this dead horse the Morrison government should focus on fixing the many failures of immigration detention. The first step should be to release the refugees it continues to spitefully detain in makeshift detention centres, and allow them to rebuild their lives in safety.”  

Media contact:

Alex Sheehy, Media and Communications Manager, 0485 864 320, alex.sheehy@hrlc.org.au