Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

The government won't be supporting the amendment. We do not consider it necessary to review the performance of immigration lawyers and the legal professional complaints handling and disciplinary procedures after the removal of dual regulation. The 2014 independent review of the OMARA, the Kendall review, recommended that lawyers be removed from the regulatory scheme that governs migration agents, such that they are entirely regulated by their own professional bodies. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee report released in February 2020 states:

The committee is confident that the legal profession in Australia is well-regulated and offers effective consumer protection mechanisms …

The relevant legal professional and disciplinary bodies and the statutory schemes underpinning them have a broader range of powers to resolve consumer related issues. These include penalties outside of OMARA's existing jurisdiction, including financial penalties for improper conduct and recommending compensation for affected clients. Lawyers with practising certificates intending to practise in the migration advice field will be able to access educational offerings to increase their knowledge, as they already do with other complex aspects of the legal profession.

After the commencement of the bill, the policy intention is for the regulation of immigration lawyers to be a matter for the states and territories, and it will be for them to evaluate the performance of immigration lawyers and related matters. The authorities responsible for disciplining Australian legal practitioners in states and territories would be better positioned to conduct any such review, as they will have access to information on legal practitioners through their regulation of them which is not readily available to the Commonwealth.