5th Dec 2023, 4:46 PM – Senate Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions and Other Measures) Bill 2023 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the main idea of the bill. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time. This means that they can now discuss it in greater detail.

What is the bill's main idea?

According to the bills digest (which is a document prepared by the parliamentary library):

• The purpose of the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions and Other Measures) Bill 2023 is to make a number of amendments following the rapid introduction and passage of the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Act 2023.

• Specifically, the Bill will create new criminal offences for breaching certain visa conditions, amend the circumstances when a Minister must vary the conditions for a Bridging Visa R, and introduce new powers for the collection and use of information related to an electronic monitoring device.

• On 8 November 2023, the High Court of Australia ordered the release of an individual known as NZYQ from immigration detention, finding his detention unlawful. On 16 November 2023, the Government introduced the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Bill 2023. This Bill passed both Houses that day with the support of the Opposition and received assent on 17 November prior to the High Court handing down its reasons in the NZYQ decision on 28 November 2023.

• The Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) Act 2023 amended the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994 to allow for the imposition of new visa conditions and the creation of offences for breaches of certain visa conditions which apply to non-citizens for whom there is no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future (the NZYQ-affected cohort).

• Stakeholders have raised significant concerns with these new provisions, and they are already the subject of at least 3 High Court challenges.

• Media reporting has foreshadowed that the Government will seek to move amendments to the Bill to introduce a new detention order scheme to be modelled on the continuing detention order scheme in Division 105A of the Criminal Code. The Opposition and the Australian Greens, as well as a number of independents, did not support the passage of the Bill through the House of Representatives.