The government is giving a new Ministerial Direction to the AAT on visa cases, telling it to make community safety paramount in considering appeals from non-citizens with serious criminal records.
The government is rushing legislation through parliament to crack down on unlawful immigrants. In a further reaction to the high court decision late last year.
The Home Affairs’ department has been a nest of trouble. There are very strong arguments for breaking it up. With an election just a year out perhaps the Prime Minister may want to freshening his team?
An inquiry found the Home Affairs secretary used his position for personal advantage, gossiped disrespectfully about ministers, broke confidentiality and didn’t disclose a conflict of interest.
Both countries have accepted very few Rohingya refugees to date, but new research suggests most Australians and New Zealanders are willing to resettle more.
Anthony Albanese has switched Tanya Plibersek from education to environment and promoted Clare O'Neil into the plum home affairs ministry in a 23-member cabinet that contains a record 10 women.
Refugees have waited in limbo for almost two years for Australia’s borders to reopen. So, why hasn’t Australia done more to ramp up its resettlement program, like Canada and the US?
The personal powers of the immigration minister to grant or cancel visas are extremely broad and powerful. And this isn’t the first time they’ve courted controversy.
Turning Serbia’s national hero into Australia’s national villain has been harder than the government thought. It’s an own goal for the latest “operation sovereign borders” chapter.
Nauru is receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from Australia annually to house 109 asylum seekers. The real purpose, though, is to ‘stand ready to receive new arrivals’.
The largest immigration detention centre is located in a COVID hot spot in western Sydney. We need to make vaccinations for detainees and staff an urgent priority.
For the first time, a woman has been appointed to the hawkishly masculine home affairs portfolio. Whether this will bring a change of approach on asylum seekers and other issues remains to be seen.