Senate committee unanimously recommends major overhaul of broken family visa system
Australia’s family migration system is in urgent need of an overhaul to ensure that families and partners are reunited with efficiency and transparency, a Senate committee has found.
The landmark inquiry handed down its report yesterday, with a bipartisan recommendation that the Department of Home Affairs urgently develop a long-term strategy to improve its handling of family visa applications. The report cited “deeply concerning” evidence about people’s experience of navigating the family migration system, and acknowledged that “more must be done” to ensure the family migration system is equitable.
Australian Greens senators made further recommendations, including adopting a more inclusive definition of family, reducing visa application fees, and abolishing discriminatory mechanisms like temporary protection visas and Ministerial Direction 80 which intentionally keep refugee families separated for years on end.
More than 500 organisations, legal experts and people themselves separated from their families made submissions and wrote letters to the inquiry.
Human Rights Law Centre Senior Lawyer Josephine Langbien said:
“Our migration system should aim to reunite people with their loved ones, rather than deliberately keeping them apart. But this Committee’s findings reaffirms what we’ve always known, that through punitive and discriminatory policies, exorbitant costs and unreasonable delays, the Australian Government is intentionally keeping thousands of families apart.
“Everyone deserves to be together with their loved ones. However, in last night’s budget announcement, the Morrison Government cut the number of partner visas. It reduced the cost of temporary tourist visas but not family visas. It is clear that family reunion is not a priority for this Government and this report highlights the urgent need for change.”
The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which conducted the inquiry, echoed the Human Rights Law Centre’s recommendation that the COVID-19 pandemic offers the chance for Australia to re-examine its migration policies and priorities for the future.
“This report recommends an urgent overhaul of the handling of family visa applications. But the reforms we need go beyond bureaucratic processes – the Australian Government needs to put families at the heart of its migration policies. By recognising the true value that family reunion brings to our communities, and eliminating the policies that directly and indirectly disadvantage families, a fairer migration system can play a crucial role in Australia’s recovery from the pandemic,” Langbien added.
Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s submission to the Senate inquiry here.
Read the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee report here.
Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s report Together in Safety here.
Media contact:
Michelle Bennett, Engagement Director, 0485 864 320, michelle.bennett@hrlc.org.au