Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

Australia’s post-pandemic surge in net overseas migration temporary, federal budget predicts

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Most of the increase is attributed to the return of overseas students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holidaymakers

Australia’s surge in net overseas migration, forecast to be 400,000 in 2022–23, is a catchup from the pandemic and is expected to be temporary, the budget papers reveal.

The forecast for 2024–25 is 260,000, broadly in line with the long-term historical average of 235,000.

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Deeming says she ‘never once’ considered suing party – as it happened

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Suspended Victorian MP says she remains a ‘proud Liberal’ and past six weeks have taken a ‘terrible toll’. This blog has now closed

Stuart Robert says his time in parliament ‘has not been the smoothest ride’

Stuart Robert, who was a close confidant of the former prime minister Scott Morrison, served as the minister for veterans’ affairs, the minister for the national disability insurance scheme and the minister for government services under the Turnbull and Morrison governments.

I am the first to acknowledge my time in parliament has not been the smoothest ride. Politics is tough. People throw the kitchen sink at you. And promises of a kinder, gentler parliament need to be taken with a grain of salt. We may all aspire to it, but ambition in politics will always win – as Labor stalwart Graham Richardson aptly put it: whatever it takes.

I do hope civility does eventually come to the theatre of politics. But I do fear division has well and truly entrenched itself in the current parliament. A kinder, gentler parliament it is not.

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News live: clock ticking as US coast guard scours ocean for missing Australian cruise passenger

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Coast guard say passenger went overboard 500 nautical miles (926 kilometres) from Hawaii’s Big Island. Follow live

The US coast guard has confirmed that an Australian man fell overboard on the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship, which was travelling from Brisbane to Hawaii.

The coast guard said the passenger went overboard 500 nautical miles (926 kilometres) from Hawaii’s Big Island.

500 nautical miles south of Hawaii’s Big Island a man fell overboard on Quantum of the Seas cruise ship. He is an Australian national.

A Hercules airplane is on scene conducting a search. At the moment it is the only asset that’s on scene searching.

We’ve been on scene since 9am. And with the crew’s endurance and the fuel constraints of the vessel they should be there for about six hours since arriving on scene.

What I can confirm is the budget will have a cost of living package that is targeted to the most vulnerable. We’ve been clear about that. Obviously some of that is the assistance and support on energy relief. We’ve had the announcements around medicines in the last day.

We are focused on making sure we can do the right thing for those that are doing it tough, but within an environment where there are a lot of demands on the budget in a lot of areas.

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Australia’s ‘broken’ migration system leaves 1.8m workers ‘permanently temporary’, review finds

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Labor urged to ditch skills lists, allow more workers in caring occupations and tackle long wait times for family visas

Australia’s “broken” migration system encourages 1.8 million guest workers to be “permanently temporary” due to strict caps on permanent migration, a landmark review has found.

The migration review, to be released on Thursday by the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, calls for “major reform”, warning that fixing Australia’s migration system “cannot be achieved by further tinkering and incrementalism”.

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‘Putting their lives on hold’: Australian families kept apart as wait times for partner visas blow out

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New figures from the home affairs department show some families are waiting years for temporary visas to be processed

Australian families are living in constant fear of being torn apart, as wait times for partner visas blow out – to years in some cases, according to newly released figures.

The Department of Home Affairs has released figures on partner visa processing times to Guardian Australia in response to a freedom of information request.

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Chris Hipkins hails ‘biggest in a generation’ citizenship reforms for New Zealanders in Australia

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Prime minister welcomes move to let New Zealanders apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first

A “historic” agreement allowing New Zealanders a faster pathway to Australian citizenship is the biggest change “in a generation” and will help the two countries forge even closer ties, the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has said.

Hipkins visited Australia on Sunday for talks with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, after the decision to give New Zealanders the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first.

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UN refugee chief condemns Australia’s offshore detention regime and slogans like ‘stop the boats’

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Exclusive: Filippo Grandi praises Australia’s refugee reset but is ‘very upset’ by UK moves to mimic its offshore detention policy

“Myopic” policies of deterrence, and slogans like “stop the boats” are ineffective in addressing the movement of asylum seekers across the world, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi has said, in a major speech urging greater cooperation between nations.

Speaking at the University of Melbourne’s Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Grandi said: “Far too often, rich countries have a myopic approach to global forced displacement and population movements, focusing overwhelmingly on border controls.”

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Chinese-Australians face fewer racist insults than at height of diplomatic tensions with Beijing, survey finds

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Lowy Institute poll indicates one in five Chinese-Australians were called offensive names in 2022, down 10 points from 31% in 2020

Chinese-Australians have continued to experience racist insults but at a lower rate than when diplomatic tensions between Canberra and Beijing erupted in 2020, a new study has found.

Polling commissioned by the Lowy Institute indicates one in five Chinese-Australians said they were called offensive names because of their heritage in 2022.

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NSW minister calls frontline workers ‘heroes’ after paramedic killing – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Kerrynne Liddle says ‘prove it’s not happening’ on child sexual abuse in Alice

Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle, the first Indigenous senator from South Australia, and a name being touted as a contender for shadow minister for Indigenous Australians after Julian Leeser’s resignation.

I think we have to be really careful about politicising this issue, because matters related to any form of assault are sensitive, but important to understand and respond to.

… I think what’s really important though, is it can’t ignore the issue of sexual abuse, but you must also tackle those issues, alongside other issues which include [service] delivery and decision dysfunction.

Do you encourage your leader to temper his language given we haven’t yet seen evidence to say that there is a widespread phenomenon of this?

I say prove it’s not happening. And then we can have a conversation about the kind of language that we can actually use for this.

… You’ve got you’ve got the statistics, which everyone accepts are underreported and underrepresented. You’ve got to have relationships with communities to enable people to start talking about these safe spaces for young people to raise this issue of need to support people to have housing so that young people and older people are not at risk of this.

It’s possible to be optimistic about Australia’s economic future, and to be realistic about a global slowdown.

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Thousands of Australian visa decisions may be affected by high court ruling, experts warn

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Advocates fear court’s decision rejecting Coalition-era policy could result in a hasty legislative fix

Migration and legal experts have warned the true number of visa decisions affected by invalid refusals of ministerial intervention is likely to be in the tens of thousands, after the high court rejected bureaucrats’ ability to block applications.

Advocates fear the court’s decision on Tuesday rejecting a Coalition-era policy that cases must show “unique or exceptional circumstances” could result in a hasty legislative fix.

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Australia news live: Liberal MPs praise Leeser’s decision to quit frontbench; contraceptive class action to begin in Melbourne

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Bridget Archer lauds former shadow minister’s ‘courage and integrity’. Follow live

Japanese hydrogen partners offer only short-term deals, want more funds

There’s been a few articles in the business media lately touting the promise of converting brown coal in Victoria into hydrogen and shipping the fuel to Japan.

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Manus Island and Nauru: previously unseen testimony and AI imagery reveal ‘unimaginable’ part of Australian history

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The witness statements were collected during more than 300 hours of interviews with refugees as part of a now discontinued pro bono class action

Thirty-two witness statements from refugees detained by Australia offshore on Nauru and Manus Island have been published as part of an exhibition chronicling, in graphic detail, conditions inside Australia’s offshore immigration processing centres.

The statements were collected during more than 300 hours of interviews with women and men detained offshore as part of a now discontinued pro bono class action that challenged the detention of a number of people forcibly held in immigration detention.

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‘Regional’ visa pushed by Coalition MPs actually allows migrants to move to cities

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Exclusive: Sussan Ley, Dan Tehan and Anne Ruston claim win for rural Australia over decision to speed up processing of 887 visa, but it lets holders choose where to live, including cities

Liberal frontbenchers Sussan Ley, Dan Tehan and Anne Ruston publicly lobbied the government for priority processing of a particular type of visa on the grounds it would allow migrants to settle in regional areas – but in fact the visa allows applicants to settle permanently in cities.

For months, the trio have complained that thousands of key workers, including in healthcare, were “being unfairly denied prioritisation” of their skilled regional visas, “effectively encouraging skilled workers to move to the city”.

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Almost 90% of children brought from Nauru suffered physical health problem – study

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Nearly 80% reported one or more mental health symptoms, research shows, with 45% reporting a suicide attempt ot self-harm

Nearly nine in 10 children brought from offshore processing on Nauru to Australia were suffering physical health conditions, including malnutrition and dental disease, while almost 80% reported one or more mental health symptoms, new research has revealed.

Nearly half – 45% – had reported suicidal ideation, a suicide attempt, or self-harm.

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Half of migrant workers in Australia feel unsafe at work, survey finds

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Advocates say there needs to be ‘urgent action’ after report reveals many workers experience discrimination and abuse

Half of all migrant workers in Australia feel unsafe at work, experiencing discrimination, bullying, and verbal abuse, while 58% experienced wage theft, new research has found.

The Migrant Workers Centre surveyed more than 1000 workers in Australia about their experiences in the job market and migration system, and found many migrants experienced discrimination in job application processes because of their visa status, despite having work rights, which pushed them towards insecure work and exploitative employers.

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‘Stop the boats’: Sunak’s anti-asylum slogan echoes Australia’s harsh policy

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In Australia, hostile rhetoric has fuelled a toxic public debate and sought to dehumanise people fleeing harm

“Stop the boats.” The white-on-red slogan on Rishi Sunak’s podium on Tuesday was – word for word – the slogan used by Tony Abbott to win the Australian prime ministership a decade ago.

To Australian audiences, so much of the rhetoric emerging from the UK over its small boats policy is reminiscent of two decades of a toxic domestic debate. A succession of Australian prime ministers have led the rhetorical charge against asylum seekers, insisting that their arrival is an issue of “national security” and “border protection”. They are “illegals”, “queue jumpers” and “terrorists”, Australians have been told, while people-smugglers are the “scum of the earth”.

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Scott Morrison’s secret ministries used as grounds for Afghan man’s cancelled visa case

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In court challenge, man argues decision by ex-home affairs minister Karen Andrews was not valid as Morrison had displaced her

An Afghan man has challenged Karen Andrews’s decision to cancel his visa in 2021, arguing that Scott Morrison’s multiple ministerial appointments displaced her as home affairs minister and rendered the decision void.

The federal court case, brought by a former employee of the US embassy in Afghanistan who is known as CEU22, indirectly challenges the validity of all visa cancellation decisions made personally by the minister from the date of Morrison’s appointment on 6 May 2021 to the Coalition’s election loss in May 2022.

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Australian government urged to ‘stop playing with people’s lives’ as people returned to detention

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Dozens of people released from immigration detention due to federal court ruling now told they will be re-detained

Lawyers have called on the Australian government to “stop playing with people’s lives” as it moves to re-detain dozens of people who were released from immigration detention over Christmas.

About 160 people had been released from detention due to a full federal court case ruling that aggregate sentences do not count for the purposes of the Migration Act’s automatic visa-cancellation provisions.

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Egyptian challenging Australia’s indefinite detention warned he faces forced removal within month

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Tony Sami, held for 10 years, is fighting to stay with his two children and had been preparing for landmark high court case

An Egyptian man challenging the lawfulness of Australia’s indefinite detention system in the high court has been warned that Border Force is preparing to remove him from the country “unwillingly” within a month if he doesn’t agree to leave on a commercial flight.

Tony Sami, who has been detained for a decade after his visa was cancelled in 2012 and who is fighting to stay in Australia to be with his two children, had been preparing for a landmark case that could determine the freedom of hundreds of asylum seekers and detainees.

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Australia politics live: Inland Rail review reveals ‘significant concerns’; senator asks if MPs’ phones safe from hackers

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Critics of project left frustrated and ‘ignored’ by previous government’s failure to heed views of regional communities. Follow the day’s news live

Joyce v Plibersek

Can there be a greater punishment than being the Labor MP chosen to “debate” Barnaby Joyce on commercial TV each week?

Well this Treasury analysis shows that price rises will be moderated, they won’t go up as much as was initially predicted and that’s because our policies are working, and it’s a shame that Barnaby and his side actually voted against the policies that have brought down energy prices in Australia, on top of not doing anything when they were in government to prepare for these energy price rises.

But we know that families are still doing is tough and that’s why we’re also delivering cheaper medicine, cheaper childcare, free Tafe and higher wages.

Well, you just heard it there. It’s the great swindle. Remember they said they were going to bring down the price of electricity by $275. Now they’re lauding the fact that it’s still going up and it will continue to go up, and at some time in the future, listen to this, it won’t go up as much as they expected it to. Now if you think that is worth banking, good luck.

As everything, you will see Liddell get blown up* and this will be under the Labor party’s watch, another power station literally blown up, another restriction on power supplies as we reduce supply and increase price. And I don’t see anything marvellous happening in the future except a Labor party which thinks that the way to fix power prices is to cap the two evils. Remember they don’t believe in coal or gas, but they do believe in capping it because they do understand all of a sudden that it is absolutely connected to power prices.

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