14th May 2014, 12:21 PM – Senate Migration Amendment Bill 2013 - Second Reading - Read a second time

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill for a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) This means that the majority agree with the main idea of the bill and that the Senate can now consider it in more detail. Alternatively, the Senate can vote on whether to read the bill for a third time without considering it in any more detail.(In the case of this bill, the Senate did decide to immediately vote on whether to read the bill for a third time without considering it further (see that division here). )

Background to the bill

The bill was introduced in response to recent court and tribunal decisions. Their purpose is to:

• resolve questions about the day and time at which certain decisions of the Minister (or their delegate) are taken to be finally made and at which decisions of the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) and Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) are made and become final;
• ensure that, once an application for a protection visa has been refused, or a protection visa has been cancelled, a person cannot apply for a protection visa on any other ground while in the migration zone;
• make it a criterion for the grant of a protection visa in section 36 of the Migration Act that the applicant is not assessed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to be directly or indirectly a risk to security within the meaning of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 (ASIO Act).(Read more about the bill in the bills digest.)