Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to explain why the government will not be supporting the opposition’s proposal. Essentially, the Senate is being asked to accept that the minister should have personal discretion to give citizenship to a person, if it would be in Australia’s public interest to do so, because of the exceptional circumstances of the case—as long as the applicant was not present in Australia as an unlawful non-citizen at any time during the two-year period immediately before the day on which the applicant made the application.

This proposal provides extraordinarily broad discretion. It contains no permanent residence requirement. It is not proposed that spending time in Australia prior to the application be a condition. There is no requirement with regard to a character assessment. There is no requirement for the applicant to reside in or to maintain a close and continuing association with Australia. It is a fly-by-night scheme. These are all standard requirements that you would expect when it comes to the question of conferring citizenship. Indeed, this amendment would likely create an industry for migration agents and vexatious citizenship applicants. The minister would have to consider them all on the basis of personal discretion. Where is the justice in that?

The proposed amendment is similar to the discretionary arrangements that are contained in the 1948 act, which was repealed with the introduction of the 2007 act. That was repealed because it was difficult to administer in a transparent and objective manner and it was open to misrepresentation and fraud. On the other hand, the government amendments for a special residence requirement for people engaged in specific activities provide a specific legal framework and a very clear eligibility requirement. These will ensure that special residence requirements are used appropriately and are only applied to the groups of people for which they are intended. They will ensure that applicants have spent some time in Australia and have an ongoing connection with the country. The coalition is talking about broadening discretion.

On the other hand, their other proposal before us regards any child, regardless of their immigration status, being able to apply for citizenship. They are suggesting that that discretion should be removed. I can only presume that the opposition are well intended here. People will use this discretion when they have exhausted all other options, including ministerial intervention, and when removal from Australia is imminent. While the coalition are correctly supporting closing one door, it would appear that they are looking to open yet another. So their approach is quite inconsistent.

The government is seeking through this bill to provide for special residence requirements for certain persons who need to be Australian citizens in order to engage in specific activity that would be of benefit to this country and where there is insufficient time for them to satisfy the current requirements of section 22 of the Australian Citizenship Act. The measures proposed provide for special residence requirements for certain persons who are unable to satisfy the current residence requirement of section 22 to engage in particular kinds of work requiring regular travel outside of Australia. They also provide for the current residence requirement in section 22 of the act to be defined as the ‘general residence requirement’, to distinguish it from the special residence requirement that would otherwise apply.

The provision for certain ministerial discretions in relation to administrative error and confinement in prison or in psychiatric institutions that already exists in the act will apply in relation to the special residence requirements. The amendments proposed by the government say that the minister may approve a person becoming an Australian citizen when the person is not present in Australia if the person satisfies the other requirements. The government is proposing that there be special residence requirements that provide the right balance in facilitating Australian citizenship for those who are unable to meet the general residence requirement due to the nature of their occupation, who genuinely call Australia home and who wish to formalise that relationship with Australia by becoming an Australian citizen. I ask the Senate to reject the opposition’s amendment.

Question put.