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www.parishpatience.com.au/immigration/
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| Issue No 23 | July 2000 | |||||
| No "user pays" parent visas | ||||||
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| Opposition blocks "user pays"
parent visas The determined attempts by the government to force Australians with ageing parents overseas to pay handsomely for the privilege of bringing them to Australia has again met with defeat in the Senate. While not contemplating any tax rebate for former migrants whose parents remain overseas, the government's plan was to impose fees in excess of $50,000 plus a ten year investment of $14,000 on Australian citizens and permanent residents wanting their parents to join them. All residents of Australia pay the same tax rates and contribute equally to the cost of supporting older generations. The government had attempted to sweeten the deal by offering to increase the "quota" of parent visas from the current limit of 500 per year to 4000. However the Labor and Democrat Senators have combined to reject the offer, as they did last year, on the basis that the inequity of swapping a few places for everybody for a larger number of places for the rich is not the type of immigration policy most Australians want. Senate report on refugee processing On 28 June the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee released its report entitled "A Sanctuary under review: An examination of Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Determination Process". Initiated by the Australian Democrats in May last year, the report examines several aspects of the refugee determination process and makes recommendations for the more efficient conduct of the refugee determination process. In particular the Committee considered the events surrounding the expulsion from Australia in July 1997 of a Chinese woman, known as "Ms Z", who was 8 months pregnant at the time and who told authorities that she feared being forced to abort her baby on return to China. The abortion subsequently took place. It became clear during the course of the subsequent investigation that Department of Immigration officials failed to pass on repeated requests from the woman for ministerial intervention because they were not in writing, failed to inform her of how to make such a request in a way that would be accepted, and failed to notify the acting Minister at the time of the expulsion that the woman was in an advanced state of pregnancy. The report recommends that "all steps be taken and put in place to ensure that the situation of Ms Z never occurs again in Australia". Committee Report Variations to existing forms and some new forms were introduced with effect from 1 July 2000. Included are sponsorship forms for the new "sponsored visitor" visa class. Minister turns to talk-back jocks for support Australian talk-back radio programs are not generally known for the progressive views expressed by participants. Mostly they offer a forum to the bigotry of the redneck minority that gave us Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party. So when the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs appeared as a guest on Ken Dickin's program on 5DN in Adelaide on 23 June to explain why he was pressuring the South Australian government not to spend money on helping recognised refugees dumped out of detention centres onto the street, he received unqualified support from callers enraged that the public funds they obviously felt were theirs by right should go to destitute escapees from regimes whose views they probably shared. The Minister may have found his natural constituency. On 4 July
the Minister announced a review of temporary
residence visas to be conducted by an external
reference group. The review will include public
consultations. Effective
from 1 July, new penalties will be
applied to airlines bringing passengers to Australia
without proper documentation. The current fine of $3,000
has been increased to $5,000. Airlines are also required
to remove the person at their own expense. Following
mass breakouts at detention centres in South Australia
and Western Australia, the government announced a review
of security at all centres in Australia. The
centres are managed by a private prison operator. With each edition of Australian Immigration Law Update we will try to find some new or interesting sites that you might enjoy visiting. This month, you might like to try out some of these*:
*These sites are not in any way endorsed or connected with Parish Patience. The listing of a commercial site does not imply any recommendation or warranty concerning the products or services offered. Parish
Patience Solicitors Tel: +612
9286 8700 Liability is limited by the Solicitors Scheme under the Professional Standards Act 1994 (NSW) Previous editions:
Copyright ©
Parish Patience Solicitors 2000. All rights reserved.
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