SUBJECT | Migration Laws and Visa Conditions | 4 October 2023
Greg Jennett: Dan Tehan, welcome back to Afternoon Briefing. Yes, so we've had this crackdown announced today on the enforcement of migration laws and visa conditions. Do you acknowledge, at least on the released version of the Nixon Review, that there is a serious problem at hand here?
Tehan: Well, the Government has sat on the Nixon Review for seven months, Greg, and the Nixon Review said there was criminal activity taking place. So, why has it taken the government seven months to release this and then to outline what seems to be fairly common sense responses and to re-announce $50 million to go into integrity when they'd made that exact same announcement in May in the Budget — shows that this is too little, too late, and also that they seem to be just interested in political point scoring rather than making sure they continue to build on the work that needs to be done to make sure that we do have proper integrity in our immigration system.
Jennett: All right. Too little, too late, you say, Dan Tehan, then, is the prescription to fix this problem, which is described by Christine Nixon, by the way, as gross and systemic?
Tehan: Well, they need to act and keep acting and act quickly. You don't get a report like this and sit on it for seven months; in that seven-month period, we've had 11,000 asylum seekers come to this country, which takes the figure now to over 105,000. We've had 320,000 students come to this nation in that period since the Nixon report was first handed to the government. And they've done none of the compliance, none of the integrity issues, that Christine Nixon was talking about when she handed the report to the government seven months ago. So, the question is: what have they been doing, and why have they sat on this report for seven months and allowed a bad situation to get worse? Everyone wants to make sure that we've got proper integrity in our immigration system. Everyone wants to make sure that we're not seeing migrants exploited. We took serious steps when we were in government. Now, obviously, the Albanese government have been given some more steps that it's recommended they should take, and they've just sat on it. They've made these announcements over the period of this week regarding the Nixon report in a very sort of dysfunctional way. We understand there will be more said tomorrow; why they didn't just release the report and say these are the actions we're going to take is beyond me.
Jennett: Can I pick up on two of those numbers you rattled off there, Dan Tehan, 11,000 asylum seekers who basically come to Australia on bridging visas, pending other resolutions of their claims and 320,000 additional international students? In each and every one of those cases, there will have been background checks, wouldn't they, on their status and those agents they might have operated through?
Tehan: Well, who knows, Greg? And this is that this is the question. We don't know that. We're hearing from the government that they will take steps now to put integrity into the system or further integrity into the system. But over the last seven months, when they've had that report, we've seen 11,000 people come to this country and claim asylum. That's taken the total figure now to 105,000. And we've seen 320,000 students come in. Now, these are record levels of students coming into this country. As far as we understand, none of the suggested compliance and integrity measures that Christine Nixon said the government should put in place have been put in place during the last seven months; otherwise, why wouldn't the government have announced that that's what they were doing? Why wouldn't they have released the report?
Jennett: Doesn't the law just to interrupt…
Tehan: That on these first seven months?
Jennett: Yeah, it doesn't. Compliance with the law, with the actual act, which is very prescriptive, as you know, in immigration, doesn't require a base-level assessment of people's backgrounds. No matter what type of visa. Are we entitled to assume that those checks are routinely done and have been for many, many years in this country?
Tehan: Well, you would hope so. But what Christine Nixon found was that people are using loopholes to get around it. Now, she identified some of these seven months ago, and yet the government in that period of seven months seems to have done nothing. And what I want to know is, if they didn't do anything, what did they do? Because what we've seen is a record number of international students coming to this country. So, did they put the extra compliance and integrity measures in place for those 320,000 students? We've seen a further 11,000 people come to the country and claim asylum. So, were there the checks and balances of those individuals before they came here? We don't know that. And the question I would be asking Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles is, what have you been doing for the last seven months? Because we know you had this report seven months ago, what have you been doing?
Jennett: All right. Well, here's a question you can answer, I guess, on behalf of the previous coalition government. Dan Tehan, when it comes to migration agents, there was already an existing requirement for registration, and one would have thought that that was monitored as well by the appropriate authorities in the Border Force, in Immigration, and more broadly in Home Affairs. Was it how was that monitored and enforced? Supervision, that is, of migration agents.
Tehan: Well, we took a series of measures in setting up an authority to make sure that that was taking place. But with all these things, Greg, what you've got to make sure you're doing is continuing to update your processes because when you put new processes in place, you'll always, unfortunately, have people who will seek to get around those. And that's a continued problem when it comes to our immigration system. You've got to stay on top of the new methods that people are using to get around them now. We took a series of steps in government, but one of the things that we knew and understood was that those compliance and integrity checks always had to keep being updated, had to keep being monitored, and you had to keep looking for where the potential holes were. And that's why Christine Nixon's report is important because it shows that you're continuing to monitor where the loopholes are. And, you know, we welcome the fact that Christine Nixon did the report. What we don't welcome is that the Government, for seven months, has sat on its hands and done nothing with the report while a bad situation that she identified, a very bad situation that she identified, has got worse. And there is no explanation from either minister as to what they've been doing in the last seven months.
Jennett: All right. Well, we will seek one of those when we get the opportunity. Dan Tehan, I hear you loud and clear on those points, and I guess we'll be discussing this a little further in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks so much for joining us again on the Afternoon Briefing.
