Kimberley Kitching voted strongly for increasing scrutiny of asylum seeker management

The majority voted against a motion to disallow the Migration (Fast Track Applicant Class – Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas) Instrument 2019. If it had been successful, that instrument would have stopped having legal force.

Tasmanian Senator Nick McKim (Greens) explained why he wanted the Instrument disallowed:

This is a classic example of scope creep by this government. Having established the unfair, punitive, unjust fast-track arrangements that have caught so many people who arrived in our country by boat seeking asylum, they now want to expand that erosion of rights and apply it to a further cohort of people. This Senate quite rightly rejected such a move by this government in the last parliament, and I call on my colleagues today to hold the line, stand up for some of the most vulnerable, disadvantaged people in our community today and vote to disallow this instrument. Almost exactly a year ago, the Morrison government attempted to extend fast-track assessments to people who arrived by boat before 2014 and were already living in Australia. That expansion would have captured an extra 108 people.

I want to make one thing very clear about the fast-track process: it is neither fast nor fair. The fast-track assessment process removes access to the normal processes of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and denies people their rights to a fair review of government decisions.

Motion text

That the Migration (Fast Track Applicant Class – Temporary Protection and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas) Instrument 2019, made under the Migration Act 1958, be disallowed [F2019L00506].

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree to the amendments made by the House of Representatives to the Senate amendments to the bill, which means all the amendments are agreed to and so the bill can now pass.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest, the bill was introduced to make various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws, including:

• clarifying that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable;
• providing that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account;
• providing that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis; and
• amending the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to agree with the remaining stages of the bill so that it will be passed with the amendments adopted by the Senate. The bill will now be sent back to House of Representatives, where our MPs will decide whether they agree with the Senate's amendments.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest:

The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 (the Bill) is an omnibus Bill which makes various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws. The Bill:

• amends the Migration Act 1958 to:

• clarify that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable (Schedule 1)

• provide that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account (Schedule 2)

• amends the Customs Act 1901 to:

• provide that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis (Schedule 3)

• make minor technical amendments (Schedule 5) and

• amends the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge (Schedule 4).

The majority voted in favour of a motion to disallow Migration Legislation Amendment (2017 Measures No. 4) Regulations 2017, which means they'll no longer have any legal force.

What did the Regulations do?

Greens Senator Nick McKim (Tas) explained that:

This regulation which we are seeking to disallow would provide the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection with sweeping new powers on top of what the Australian Greens already consider to be a far too broad range of powers, which have been exercised continually in an unreasonable way by the minister.

The changes that the minister is proposing to make, in broad terms, would allow the immigration department to detain people, potentially indefinitely, on the basis of criminal conduct that has not been proven or even tried, on the basis of behaviour that's considered by the department to have endangered or threatened another person extending, potentially, to bullying and online vilification, and because of inconsistencies in people's names on identity documents issued by any Commonwealth, state or territory government authority or official, or failures to update any name changes in those documents.

See the explanatory memorandum for more information about what these Regulations did.

The majority voted in favour of a motion introduced by Greens Senator Nick McKim (Tas), which means it was successful.

This motion asked for the documents to be produced that relate to the agreement between Australia and the USA for the potential resettlement of refugees currently on Manus Island and Nauru, which President Donald Trump has described as a "dumb deal".

Motion

That there be laid on the table by the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, on 15 February 2017, the agreement between Australia and the United States of America announced on 13 November 2016 regarding the potential resettlement to the United States of refugees on Manus Island and Nauru.