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Complexity of Australian Migration Law, says Parliamentary Secretary
Complexity of migration law
Immigration law has always been a dynamic, controversial and highly contested area of public policy.
It is a controversial area of public policy because it concerns regulates the entry, stay or exclusion from Australia, of non-citizens.
It involves setting parameters about which individuals, what manner and how many, should be allowed to enter the country.
This in itself involves consideration of controversial issues, including human rights, cultural diversity, national security and perhaps more frequently, sustainability.
It involves decision-making on complex matters such as whether a person meets the relevant visa criteria: passes the character test, has suitable sponsorship arrangements in place, meets health requirements or meets eligibility for citizenship.
But it’s also easy to forget that immigration policy has always been a source of debate in the Australian community.
For instance, one of the first Acts of the Federal Parliament in 1901 was the Immigration Restriction Act, known as the White Australia Policy.
This Act and its administration started over a century of contention over migration law.
In the 1920s, immigration laws on “who constituted a constituent member of the Australian community” were a feature of constitutional litigation. That is still the case today.
The introduction of the English dictation test attracted as much attention in the 1950s, as the citizenship test did in 2007.
What this tells us is that there has always been lively debate on immigration issues in this country, which I believe is a good thing.
Obviously it has been an area where there has been a contention that some of the debate was limited to a narrow band of people least affected by outcomes.
However, a lot has changed in the immigration law environment over the past 20 years, including as a result, the growth of accountability mechanisms and the development of more detailed policies and procedures.
The dynamism in the immigration law environment is reflected in the changes to immigration legislation in the past 20 years.
Much of this legislative change has resulted from the need to balance the competing expectations of flexibility and certainty in immigration decision-making.
Since 1986, the Migration Act has changed from a slim volume of broad principles to now encompass more than 550 provisions and more than 1900 pages of regulations.
As an example, in 2005, 1100 amendments were made to the Migration Regulations.
In addition, the new Australian Citizenship Act commenced on 1 July 2007.
Immigration policy and law is also highly contested, reflecting the complex nature of many issues involved in immigration decision-making and the fundamental nature of rights affected.
Immigration policy has been at the forefront of administrative law contestability since the introduction of the administrative law package in the late 1970s.
Since 1986, the migration litigation caseload has increased from double figures to more than 4000 applications for AAT and judicial review in 2006-07.
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