Immigration minister gets new powers on Aussie citizenship

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton will have the final say on who becomes an Australian citizen under new rules that will be debated in parliament this week.

The Courier Mail reported today that the change would enable the minster to overrule decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) – a tribunal that has allowed convicted foreign criminals to successfully appeal the Immigration Department’s decision to refuse them citizenship, according to a separate report by the Herald Sun.

According to the Courier Mail report, the new rules will allow Dutton to set aside the AAT’s decision if he believes the applicant is unfit to be an Australian citizen and the decision is not in the public interest. He currently has the right to overturn AAT decisions on visas but not citizenship.

The Courier Mail reported that the AAT had allowed a paedophile, a people smuggler and a person jailed for manslaughter to become citizens, against the department’s advice.

The AAT provides independent reviews on decisions made by government departments. Its panellists are not publicly named, although its most senior executives are, and most of its decisions are not published. 

After New Zealand-born Carl Stafford was convicted of rape earlier this year, it emerged that the AAT had overturned a 2013 Immigration Department decision to cancel his visa on the basis of his lengthy record of offending. Stafford was thus able to stay in Australia to commit the 2015 rape.

Separately, the AAT’s registrar told a Senate committee this month that the tribunal had overturned 60 Immigration Department decisions on protection and refugee visas since July 2014, the Herald Sun reported.

The new rules, first announced in April, are among broader changes to citizenship rules that include a tougher English-language test for applicants and a four-year wait before a citizenship application can be submitted, rather than the current one year. Applicants will also be required to pass a new ‘values’ test and show that they have integrated into Australian society, if the rules are passed.

It comes amid a broader debate on extremist Islam and immigration, with some high-profile commentators including former prime minister Tony Abbott arguing that there is a connection between Australia’s asylum system and terrorism.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that the recent terror attack in London Bridge and Borough Market in England’s capital was masterminded by a British citizen, as was the Manchester attack earlier in the month and the Westminster attack in March. 

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Sunday that the state would build a new jail within the existing Goulburn prison to house radicalised inmates, so that they cannot mix with other prisoners.

Are we tough enough on who gets Aussie citizenship?