Category Archives: Australian immigration and asylum

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

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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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Nearly 20,000 refugees to get same rights as other permanent residents after being kept ‘in limbo’

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Labor clears way for temporary protection and safe haven visa holders to apply for permanency

Nearly 20,000 refugees will soon be able to apply for permanency, giving them the same rights as permanent residents after being kept “in limbo”.

The changes – hailed by refugee advocates as “a victory of unity and compassion over division and fear” – were part a Labor election promise. They mean that about 19,000 temporary protection and safe haven enterprise visa holders will be eligible to apply for a permanent resolution of status visa.

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Iraqi man dies in suspected suicide at Villawood immigration detention centre

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The man in his 30s, who was a detainee for five years, found in his cell at the Sydney centre

An immigration detainee from Iraq has died in a suspected suicide at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney.

The Department of Home Affairs, which oversees immigration detention, confirmed the death of the man on Sunday.

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Australian residents stuck overseas during Covid denied citizenship by government

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Tribunal ruling says there is ‘no leeway’ for woman who was in Saudi Arabia visiting her son when borders shut

The government is denying Australian citizenship to some residents who were trapped overseas by Covid travel restrictions through no fault of their own, an approach criticised as “harsh”.

The administrative appeals tribunal recently ruled on an appeal by Farida Natalwala, an Indian citizen who has lived in Australia for roughly a decade.

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Immigration detainee not given new food because maggots ‘just on the vegetables’, report finds

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Advocates say ombudsman’s findings lay bare ‘inhumane’ treatment in Australia’s detention centres

An immigration detainee served a contaminated meal was not offered an alternative because the maggots were “just on the vegetables”, a report by the federal watchdog has found.

The claims by the commonwealth ombudsman – which are denied by the Australian Border Force – come in a report into conditions inside federal detention centres as part of Australia’s obligations under a UN anti-torture treaty – the optional protocol to the convention against torture (Opcat).

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‘Red flags’ raised over scheme to allow families of Pacific Island workers to join them in Australia

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Families who relocate under federal scheme would not have access to Medicare, or relocation or housing costs, making move unviable for many, experts warn

Guest workers from Pacific Island countries will soon be able to relocate their families to Australia, but there are already concerns over “red flags” in the current design of the scheme that may make it unviable.

The federal scheme will pilot bringing up to 200 families on one- to four-year contracts starting this year, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. This comes after years of the workers – who fill the gaps in Australia’s agriculture, meat-works and aged care workforces under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme – being separated from their families.

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Australia on track for 2023 migration boom as arrivals dwarf Treasury forecasts, ex-official says

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Former immigration department deputy believes government has ‘significantly underestimated’ net migration

Australia is on track for net migration of more than 300,000 people this year, more than 25% higher than Treasury forecasts, due to a surge in arrivals, according to a former top immigration official.

Abul Rizvi, the former deputy secretary of the immigration department, said that Treasury forecasts of a 235,000-person annual boost to population from migration – the long term pre-pandemic average – have “significantly underestimated” net figures.

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News live updates: Albanese flags Australian interest in Papua New Guinea hydro and hydrogen; NSW and Victoria rule out Pell state funeral

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Victorian premier says there will not be a state service for cardinal, out of respect for victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Follow live

Visa processing problems in spotlight

Pat Conroy acknowledged ongoing visa processing issues and said the government was “hopeful that we can get a resolution on that issue”:

People in Papua New Guinea are also very keen on our Pacific engagement visa, which is about creating 3,000 permanent migration spots each year into Australia … and there’s also lots of interest in Papua New Guineans working, studying in Australia as well.

His message around democracies is that [it is] incumbent upon politicians in both countries [to] defend democracy and we defend democracy by demonstrating it’s the best system to deliver actual benefits for the people that we govern. So that’s about investing in stronger health outcomes, lifting stronger economic outcomes.

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Anthony Albanese to push ‘family-first’ security treaty in address to Papua New Guinea parliament

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Australian PM to call for ‘a swift conclusion to negotiations’ to treaty and say both countries should ‘work as equals with our fellow Pacific states’

Anthony Albanese will seek progress on a new security treaty during a visit to Papua New Guinea, pushing a “family-first approach” amid increasing competition with China for influence in the Pacific.

On Thursday the Australian prime minister will become the first foreign government leader to address PNG’s parliament and will say he sees the relationship as “a bond between equals”.

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