Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is undermining the integrity of our visa-processing system by issuing needlessly cruel instructions to his department. In December, under powers granted by section 499 of the Migration Act, the Minister for Immigration issued a ministerial directive instructing staff at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to accord the lowest possible priority to the processing of family-stream visa applications for people who arrive in Australia by boat. At first glance this harsh directive may seem to be in line with the government's efforts to prevent arrivals by boat, but the minister's decision to apply this directive retrospectively to the bearers of protection visas is grossly unfair and needlessly cruel.

While I respect the minister's right to issue instructions to his department, I call on the minister to only apply this directive to future applications. The directive penalises those who have already demonstrated conclusively and unequivocally that are they genuine refugees and who have satisfied all evidentiary and procedural standards that we have asked of them. They have made their commitment to Australia. Those affected by the ministerial directive have received letters from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection advising that they have been identified as illegal maritime arrivals, that their applications will only be considered after all other applicants, that this will likely take several years, that they should cancel any travel plans and that their application fees will not be refunded.

Let me be clear about a couple of matters that are important to the context of this announcement. Firstly, I agree with the stated policy position of both the Labor Party and other parties that we must be careful not to offer hope to those people who are seeking asylum by entering Australian territorial waters by boat. We have to have robust policy in place to determine asylum claims both onshore and offshore and we must preserve the integrity of our process. Secondly, I want to express my full support for and confidence in the staff at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and other government agencies that evaluate applications for asylum. This process is essential to our national security and to our obligations under the refugee convention. To ensure the full confidence of the Australian public, we must maintain the high standards of integrity. I commend the public servants who vigorously examine all asylum claims, who carefully determine whether subsequently to grant refugee status and then perform all necessary background checks to decide whether to grant a protection visa.

It is because I have confidence in our existing system that I think this ministerial directive is grossly unfair. The minister has gratuitously penalised people who have satisfied his department that their application for asylum is genuine, that their status of refugee is genuine and that their right to a protection visa is genuine. Since arriving in Australia, these people have first been subjected to our immigration detention system and then, since joining our communities, they have abided by our laws, entered our economy and given no-one any reason to doubt their character. Many have been living freely here for several years. If they then choose to sponsor family members to join them in Australia, let the Department of Immigration and Border Protection consider any application on its merits in the normal process of evaluation and without further administrative penalty. By applying this directive retrospectively, the minister is undermining the very idea of fairness that we all, across the political spectrum, are in this Senate to preserve. I call on the Minister for Immigration to allow the bearers of protection visas to have their family-stream visa applications considered fairly on their merits and in accordance with our existing procedures.