TRANSCRIPT
The government is under increasing pressure over immigration.
This time, it's over a ministerial direction that requires courts to consider a person's ties to Australia when reviewing visa cancellations.
Liberal Senator James Paterson says it's another immigration issue the government needs to answer for.
"Just when you think it couldn't get worse, we learned today that at least three former child sex offenders who ordinarily would have been deported from this country because they are not citizens, have been allowed to stay because Andrew Giles issued a direction to his department that we shouldn't be deporting people like that any more."
The Coalition is demanding Immigration Minister Andrew Giles rescind the so-called 'Direction 99' - an order requiring authorities to consider a criminal's ties to Australia when reviewing visa cancellations.
Labor amended deportation rules last January, in response to trans-Tasman tensions.
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern had repeatedly criticised Australia for deporting New Zealand nationals who had established lives in Australia.
"Send back Kiwis - genuine Kiwis. Do not deport your people and your problems."
Now, ties to Australia are one of five key areas of consideration for the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, known as the AAT, when reviewing visa cancellation decisions.
The other primary considerations include risks to the Australian community, the type of offence committed, and any impact on the children of the non-citizen.
Migration lawyer Hamish Glenister says the directions allow the Tribunal to take a more uniform approach to decisions.
"The directions create some sort of a measure of uniformity in decision making. They create consistency. If you didn't have a direction, all you would have is the very broad discretion you convert on decision-makers by the Act, and results in individual cases would become far more arbitrary and random, and really would depend on the idiosyncratic views of whoever is making the decision at the time."
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles says Direction 99 doesn't take away from other aspects considered by the court.
"It was a decision of the AAT, an independent tribunal, to overturn the cancellation of the visa. I remind the House that the direction places a significant emphasis on serious offending and on family violence. These need to be considered in all matters, in all matters, by the tribunal. "
The AAT has reinstated the visa of a New Zealand man, known as CHCY, who pleaded guilty to raping his teenage stepdaughter in 2021, noting he had lived in Australia since he was 16, where his mother, stepfather, wife and three children also reside.
That long-standing connection to Australia is one of the reasons his visa was not cancelled.
Liberal MP Dan Tehan says that's not good enough.
"The first thing that has to go is Ministerial Direction 99, the Andrew Giles ministerial direction. That has to go, because as we're seeing from AA team members, it is that ministerial direction that is leading to people like this foreign citizen who raped a 13 year old girl remaining in the country."
