Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members for their contributions to this debate. The Migration and Maritime Powers Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2015 is an omnibus bill that makes a number of unrelated and technical amendments to the Migration Act and the Maritime Powers Act. Together these amendments are important to clarify and strengthen the legislative framework around persons who seek to enter and remain in Australia. The bill will amend the Migration Act to ensure that when the department attempts to remove someone from Australia up until that point the person successfully enters the destination country, the person can be returned to Australia without a visa and, if they are so returned, then certain application bars that would otherwise no longer apply because the person left Australia will continue to apply.

The amendments in this bill will also ensure that when the Migration Act provides for a visa to cease, that visa will cease whether or not the visa is in effect at the time. The bill strengthens and clarifies the legal framework established in December 2014 by the Migration Amendment (Character and General Visa Cancellation) Bill 2014 and ensures that the character cancellation provisions operate effectively as intended. It does this by ensuring that confidential criminal intelligence that is critical to decision-making under certain character provisions can be appropriately protected, inserting a new removal power to put beyond doubt that a noncitizen whose visa has been mandatorily cancelled will be available for removal from Australia at the end of the process, and aligning the definition character concern with the character test to ensure that the department is able to identify noncitizens who have a criminal history or who are of character concern.

The bill will also amend the Migration Act to ensure that fast-track applicants refused protection visas on certain character or security grounds can make an application for review of that decision to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal under the existing provisions within the Migration Act. Character determinations can be evidentially and legally complex, and the AAT has particular expertise in this area. By allowing the AAT to review those decisions, the government is ensuring a consistent and rigorous but fair and expert process. The bill will also clarify that when a protection visa application is made on a person's behalf and that person is then refused the visa, the person cannot apply for a further protection visa regardless of whether the application is made on the same or different grounds to the original application.

Finally, the bill amends the Maritime Powers Act 2013 to confirm the powers under the act are able to be exercised in the course of the passage through or above waters of another country in a manner consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Overall, the bill significantly improves the Migration Act and the Maritime Powers Act by removing inconsistencies and ensuring that the law operates in accordance with the government's policy intention. I commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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