The Federal Parliament has passed a law allowing the Home Affairs department to stop some people with temporary visas from coming to Australia if there is a conflict overseas.
Labor MP Julian Hill said the “situation in the Middle East” has raised questions about whether people would overstay their temporary visas “should they travel here.”
Some independents and Greens parliamentarians have called the policy “racist”.
It’s a complex policy. Let’s unpack.
Context
On 28 February, the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran, killing the Supreme Leader and civilians.
Iran’s UN ambassador says the strikes have killed 1,348 civilians, while the UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced.
Iran-backed, Lebanon-based group Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel last week. Israel has responded with strikes across Lebanon, killing almost 700 people and displacing at least 800,000 people.
Visa changes
Prior to this bill, the Home Affairs Minister could suspend individualvisas for up to six months under certain circumstances:
- If a person has not yet travelled to Australia but has a temporary visa,
- and a major event happens outside Australia, which the Government believes will cause them to overstaytheir visa if they come here.
It also applies when the Government determines that if the major event had already happened when the person applied for their visa, it would not have been granted.
On 10 March, Assistant Citizenship Minister Julian Hill introduced a bill to apply these rules “at scale” to whole “cohorts”. Decisions about these cohorts must be explained toParliament.
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This means citizens of a country at war could be blocked from coming to Australia on a temporary visa for up to six months at a time.
There is an exemption for people in these circumstances with immediatefamily in Australia.
Hill said it is not “controversial” that Australians “feel confident” that “when someone receives a temporary visa... they are coming for a temporary purpose, not for another purpose.”
Response
The Coalition supported the changes, with Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Ted O’Brien calling them “reasonable measures to strengthen the integrity of Australia’s migration system.”
However, O’Brien said “migration numbers have been too high”.
While the changes “are welcome,” he said they “cannot substitute for... strong overall migration management.”
Earlier this week, the Government granted humanitarian visas to some members of the Iranian women’s football team. In light of this, some crossbenchers questioned the consistency of the Government’s approach.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi,independent MP Zali Steggall and independent Senator Lidia Thorpe each called the legislation “racist”.
Steggall said: “While clearly targeted at Iranians today, in the future it can be unfairly applied to any nationality”.
Thorpe said: “With this Government, the only way to protect yourself from this illegal war is to be an elite athlete.”
“There was absolutely no talk of this sort of legislation after Russia invaded Ukraine,” independent Senator David Pocock said. The current Labor Government came to power three months after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Asylum Seekers Centre CEO Elijah Buol called the changes “duplicity defined.”
“The Government has chosen to block people with valid visas from entering Australia, while offering selective access to a few in the public eye,” he said.
