Registered Migration Agents
55523, 55530, 60676, 59088, 70721, 9800540, 9802999

www.parishpatience.com.au/immigration/

On 18 October the Full Bench of the Federal Court held in MIMA v Li [2000] FCA 1456 that applications for Protection Visas (refugee status) that were lodged without specific claims being made may not be valid applications for a visa. Even if the applicant appeals to the Refugee Review Tribunal and makes specific claims to the Tribunal, it is too late to validate the original application and the RRT has no jurisdiction to consider the refusal.

According to the Court, for an application to be valid the approved form must be fully completed. An application which does not set out the claims of the applicant, either on the actual form or in an attachment, is not complete until details of the claims are provided. Details must be provided to the Department, not the RRT.

As a result of the Full Court ruling, people who may have been barred from lodging further applications for Protection Visas, or for any other type of visa, because of sections 48 and 48A of the Act may now be free to do so if their original Protection Visa applications were invalid. This would be the case even if their cases had been heard by the RRT and rejected.

The question of whether an application for a protection visa was valid when lodged, or later became valid, also has an effect on whether the applicant is entitled to work in Australia while the case is under consideration.

Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Li

Domestic violence regulations disallowed

The Senate voted on 1 November to disallow new regulations due to come into effect on that day which would have made the government agency Centrelink the sole arbiter of whether or not an applicant for residence in Australia had been the victim of domestic violence, subject to a final veto by immigration officers. The regulations were described in detail in last month's Update.

The result of the disallowance is that the previous provisions for evidencing domestic violence remain in place.

DIMA list of November changes

Minister Ruddock makes important population speech

The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Philip Ruddock, delivered a speech to the Australian Centre for Population Research on 11 October in which he made clear that Australia's immigration policy is not being driven by some of the more strident proponents of neo-Malthusian paranoia. Referring to the work of Professor Peter McDonald, as well as two major inquiries in the 1990s, the Minister said:

It is misguided to assume that if only we could reduce the number of people living here, environmental problems would disappear. They would not. If we could suddenly and magically reduce our population to say 12 million, there is no reason why that population could not and would not engage in the same level of irrigated agriculture, mining, aluminium smelting etc that occurs with the current level of population.

In this context, I find it very telling that as the CSIRO pointed out in its submission to the Jones Inquiry, the most ruthless devastation of Australia's forests occurred in the 19th century, at the end of which the population was less than one third its present size.

I would go further and suggest that such beliefs are dangerous because they divert attention away from the need to address environmental problems now, rather than waiting for the non-solution of population reduction.

Transcript

News in brief

Several commonly used immigration forms have been changed with effect from 1 November. All applications lodged on or after that date should use the new forms, which are available for download in .pdf format from the internet.
Immigration forms

Peru, the Russian Federation and Vietnam have been added to the definition of "APEC economy" in the Migration Regulations. This does not mean, however, that citizens of those countries are able to obtain APEC Business Cards for travel to Australia.
DIMA Summary

Hot links

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*:

• http://www.hastings1066.com/ - a high quality site providing excellent reproductions of the Bayeux Tapestry
• http://oneworldphoto.20m.com/ - Photography news source and documentary production company specilising in human rights issues

*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.

Contact us:

Parish Patience Immigration
Level 1, State Street Centre
338 Pitt Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA 

Tel: +612 9286 8700
Fax: +612 9267 8808
Email

Liability is limited by the Solicitors Scheme under the Professional Standards Act 1994 (NSW)

Previous editions:

Copyright © Parish Patience Immigration 2000. All rights reserved.