The attacks on Immigration Minister Andrew Giles make me very angry, and deeply depressed at the naked politicisation of the Immigration Department. So many reader comments and public commentary display massive ignorance of the processes around visa cancellation and removal of non-citizens, and the generally, carefully weighed decision-making processes of Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) members.
Direction 99 requires that decision-makers take into account a wide range of factors when assessing whether or not to cancel or refuse a visa. Applicants before the AAT are questioned by the member hearing the appeal, are cross-examined by lawyers acting for the Department of Immigration, and have the right to bring witnesses and provide information and evidence as to their situation. Detailed forensic specialists’ reports assessing the likelihood of reoffending are frequently tendered in evidence. Hearings in character cases frequently run over several days, so there is substantial information before the member before a decision will be made.
In many cases, those faced with cancellation have committed relatively minor offences where they might have been sentenced concurrently or even given a suspended sentence. If those sentences add up to 12 months, then the person “fails” the character test. This can happen with offences that are many years old, which are then added to something more recent and where someone has largely turned their life around and put down deep roots in Australia.
I am a registered migration agent and have been practising since 2005, mostly in family reunion and humanitarian areas, but more recently in domestic violence, character and citizenship issues. I had one protection visa client who massively “failed” the character test as the result of one particularly stupid decision, made at a time when he was deeply depressed. He was completely rehabilitated within our prison system (yes, truly), assisted the Federal Police in busting a serious criminal group, and is now holding down a responsible job in a high-demand industry.
If he had been refused at the AAT, he would have rotted in detention for years until he was ready to beg to be returned to meet a very slow, painful and fatal punishment at the hands of the organisation he offended. I am passionate about the AAT system because apart from the LNP hacks who have been appointed during the last government, it works reasonably well and has been able to correct some truly appalling (and occasionally unlawful) decisions made by Immigration.
Where family breadwinners are removed, the families left behind are frequently plunged into poverty. People who came to Australia as children (and this includes many “10-Pound Poms), who have been raised and educated here, are to all intents and purposes “Australian”. Unless they travel overseas, they may never realise that they are not citizens and are therefore subject to removal. This not only punishes the offender but can have a terrible effect on families, with “blameless” relatives often forced to choose between leaving with a partner or remaining in Australia with children and even grandchildren.
Minister Andrew Giles is the first minister for immigration in over a decade who actually understands this incredibly complex portfolio. He has been working quietly and effectively to untangle many of the serious messes left behind by the previous four ministers. This includes the 95,000-plus people who arrived in Australia by plane and who have since lodged entirely spurious protection visa applications, the bulk of which have not yet been dealt with.
It will be a travesty and detrimental to the good order of the Australian immigration system if the opposition forces a competent and humane minister from this important portfolio.
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