Kangaroo court

JUSTICE delayed is justice denied. What about if justice is glossed over, or the decision dispenser proceeds “by leaps and bounds,” ignoring evidence in favor of the defendant?

Then it would be called kangaroo court.

In July 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that Australia was “facing skilled worker shortages that almost reached 500,000 in number.”

Australia’s Business Council warned “the lack of critically skilled workers is punishing Australia’s small businesses and customers who want to travel and go out following two years of disruptions brought about by the coronavirus.”

In addition, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) reported that “net overseas migration will not fully recover until 2024 as it is facing a cumulative loss of more than 600,000 people largely due to the pandemic.”

In response the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) announced it was “easing its visa rules” in a bid to attract skilled workers “by raising migration and clearing visa processing backlogs.”

For the 2022-23 migration program, the DHA announced an increase in the quota for skilled visa types from a planned level of 79,600 in 2021-2022 to 142,000.

The total migration program — including the family subclasses — increased overall from 160,000 to 195,000.

However, the increase in skilled workers was countered by a decrease in family migration — from 80,300 to 52,500. Visa allocation for parents almost doubled from 4,500 to 8,500 while visas for partners were reduced from 72,300 to 40,500. (See table)

Cost of parenting

A peek into the visa fees that family-class applicants pay could provide clues.

The basic charge for a partner (pro

visional and migrant) visa (subclass 309 100) is AU$8,085. By contrast, the basic visa fee for a contributory parent visa subclass 143 is from AU$47,955.

It can be argued that the other parent visa subclasses — SC 103 and aged parent visa SC 804 — are only AU$4,560.

The fees charged spell the difference in processing times.

The DHA website explains that it does “not provide processing times for contributory parent, parent, contributory aged parent and aged parent visa applications. Applications for these visas are subject to capping and queueing.”

However, based on applications already in queue and to be queued, the DHA estimates that new contributory parent visa applications lodged that meet the criteria to be queued are likely to take at least 74 months to be released for final processing.

In contrast, the new parent and aged parent visa applications lodged that meet the criteria to be queued are likely to take at least 30 years for final processing.

So the AU$4,560 visa charge for the aged parent is likely to be forfeited by nature, a fortuitous event that the

DHA cannot be blamed for. On the other hand, sons and daughters who paid more AU$47,955 would expect to wait for only eight years.

How much would the 4,000 increase in parent visas could Australia expect? Approximately AU$191,820,000. This assumes that the sons and daughters will opt to pay more and wait less.

Processing apparently is the key. Until an application is processed it is not “queued.”

The DHA is required to process parent and contributory parent applications in date order and within annual limits. The department had “identified some discrepancies in processing times between offshore and onshore visas in both parent and contributory parent categories and are taking action to correct them.”

Visa applications of the sons/ daughters for the contributory parent already in Australia have been assessed up to February 2017. However, onshore contributory parent visas lodged from February 2017 onwards are likely to take longer as the DHA seeks to speed up processing of visa applications filed for contributory parent outside Australia to strike a balance.

Queue release dates

All contributory parent visa (CPV) applications lodged before June 1, 2018 have been processed and given a queue date. CPV applications lodged on or after June 1, 2018 are being assessed and given a queue date when the initial visa criteria are met.

As at Sept. 30, 2022, the DHA had released the following parent visa applications for final processing:

– Contributory parent visa applications with a queue date up to December 2016;

– Parent visa applications with a queue date up to February 2011; and

– Aged parent visa applications with a queue date up to December 2012.

The aforementioned visa subclasses are applications for permanent residency.

Among the temporary visa classes, the lone standout is the temporary skilled shortage visa (subclass 482) in the short stream and medium-term categories.

Applicants in the short stream category could wait for two to four years in this subclass before becoming eligible to apply for permanent residency to the other skilled regional visa subclasses through a sponsoring employer, state or territory government.

SBS News reported a subclass 482 who arrived in Australia from France in July 2019 and applied for the “medium stream” subclass.

At the time, this was the subclass of choice as the government repeatedly announced that the country wanted “more migrants, more workers, especially in the regions.”

Almost a year before Covid-19 struck, the DHA announced changes to the 482 visa.

SBS said that “these changes effectively block anyone who applied for the visa’s medium-term stream after that date from being eligible for permanent residency through the regional sponsored migration scheme visa (subclass 187). It also introduced a new 494 visa that effectively replaces the 482 visa.”

Subclass 482 applicants affected by the changes say that it was “unclear how the change was announced.”

The applicant from France says “It’s not clear at all, the whole thing is kind of sneaky.”

The sneaky and arbitrary changes done before and during the pandemic bubbled to the surface when Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil admitted that Australia’s immigration system is broken — in a “state of disrepair” after revelations that bad actors are exploiting it.

O’Neil pledged the system will be reviewed following reports of visa torting and foreign worker exploitation. At the same time, immigration advocates, experts and support groups say “the visa backlog must be reduced, and tougher penalties are needed to stem criminal activity.”

As of last month, an estimate of up to 17,897 applications for the medium stream of the 482 visa were lodged between March 1, 2019, and Nov. 30, 2019, when the change was mentioned in the department’s skilled visa newsletter. While it is unclear how many of these applications were directly related to the regional program, this development is clear evidence of an immigration system that decides by leaps and bounds, not mindful of those who are to be affected.

What rubs salt to the wound is the fact that had the 482 medium term applicant from France chosen the 482 short stream, she would now be eligible to apply for residency under changes announced by the DHA on July 1, 2022 as a “reward” for skilled workers who had stayed in Australia during the pandemic and worked for at least one year.

Week before last, during a migration conference hosted by CEDA Immigration Minister Andrew Giles confirmed the DHA has many similar stories.

Giles explained that Australia’s “visa system in the past has chopped and changed too often… it is important the government must focus on what it wants to do with the migration system before making changes; not to continue tinkering in piecemeal fashion, and set up problems” like the 482 visa cases.

The immigration minister conceded that “the manner in which we have operated significantly affected the lives of migrant-applicants” which now affects Australia’s ability to attract and retain skilled workers.

With Australia’s 100 visa subclasses and changes that sneak in and out during the night, the DHA seems to be not a department without legs but one that leaps in bounds like a kangaroo.