Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Lambie. You'd be aware that our government has indicated an intention to change the way migration decisions are made in relation to people who have come here from New Zealand. In fact, the minister has issued a direction—I think that is the terminology—to the effect that, if someone from New Zealand has been in Australia from a very young age, that is to be a primary factor taken into account in decisions about that person's visa.

How that would relate here is that, if this bill is passed, we would go back to the situation in which Australian law has always been understood to be, which is that there would be mandatory cancellation of a person's visa if they were convicted of serious offences that led to long aggregate sentences. But, even if that mandatory—that is, not the decision of the minister—cancellation occurred, the individual concerned would have the power to seek a revocation of that decision. So, effectively, they could appeal that decision to the minister. At that point, if we're talking about a New Zealander or someone originally from New Zealand, the minister would have to give primary consideration to the fact that that individual had lived in Australia for a very long time.

So the person's visa would have mandatory cancellation, but, in the example of the New Zealander who has lived here since they were two or something like that, the minister would have to give consideration to the length of time they've lived in Australia in deciding whether to back off that mandatory cancellation. But the presumption is mandatory cancellation because, again, we are talking about people who have been convicted of very serious offences.