Government Launches Initiative to Address Antisemitic and Racist Views in Migration Process

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The federal government will review the country’s migration laws in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre which was allegedly perpetrated by a man who immigrated from India and his son, who was born in Australia.

But experts have raised concerns the government’s plan to crack down on migration vetting could marginalise innocent people and create administrative headaches.

The assistant minister for immigration said the government’s response to the massacre would include a review of the country’s migration laws as part of a package to be released in the coming days and weeks.

Matt Thistlethwaite emphasized the importance of scrutinizing Australia’s migration protocols to ensure they are robust enough to prevent individuals with antisemitic or racist ideologies, who might incite violence, from entering the country. Speaking to ABC on Thursday morning, he stressed the need for effective measures to stop such individuals from migrating to Australia.

Home affairs minister Tony Burke confirmed on Thursday afternoon that the government intends to make visa cancellation and visa refusal easier, saying people on visas are “guests” in Australia.

The bill has not been drafted yet but the government says it would seek to give the home affairs greater powers over visas.

Burke made the announcement alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who said the government will draft new bills to combat antisemitism, and “hate preachers”.

Meanwhile, Tony Burke highlighted that Australia has no place for those who arrive with hateful intentions. “We don’t need people who come here to hate,” he declared, pointing out that some individuals have taken advantage of Australia’s free speech principles, pushing boundaries with language that dehumanizes but skirts the line of inciting violence.

The government will also act to curb hate speech, which Burke said would be achieved by “lowering the threshold” for some offences.

On another note, Liberal MP and former frontbencher Andrew Hastie, during an interview with Sky News on Tuesday evening, identified immigration as a crucial area needing evaluation. His comments reflect a growing concern about the potential loopholes in the current system.

Currently, individuals applying for permanent or temporary visas in Australia are obligated to sign a values statement. This declaration includes commitments to the rule of law and respect for religious freedom. However, it notably omits any mention of ‘Judeo-Christian’ values, which has sparked a broader discussion on the cultural and ethical foundations expected of new arrivals.

On Sunday, two men who police say are linked to a terrorist group fired at people at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, killing 15 and injuring dozens more.

Two homemade self-proclaimed Islamic State group flags were found in the vehicle used by the alleged gunmen, 24-year-old Naveed Akram and his 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during Sunday’s attack.

The younger of the pair is Australian-born, and his father came into the country from India on a student visa in 1998, later becoming a permanent resident.

Liberal MP and former frontbencher Andrew Hastie told Sky News on Tuesday evening that an area “we really need to look at is immigration”.

“Numbers are one thing, but I think who we bring into our country is really important.”

“They have to sign up to Australian values, which are fundamentally Judeo-Christian values: equality, the rule of law, consent, democratic traditions — all those things are fundamentally Judeo-Christian,” he said.

People coming into Australia on permanent or temporary visa pathways are required to sign an Australian values statement, which includes respecting freedom of religion and commitment to the rule of law, but it doesn’t refer to ‘Judeo-Christian’ values.

Concerns over screenings

Experts have told SBS News they are concerned for people of or perceived to be of Muslim background living in or migrating to Australia, who could be disproportionately screened.

“When we start to see the proposals for laws like this, I think there’s a real risk that that kind of conflation of language in terms of identities becomes collapsed into an assumption that anyone who looks like or seems like a Muslim is then subject to more stringent regulation and surveillance,” lecturer of criminology at the University of Melbourne Claire Loughnan told SBS News.

Loughnan said there are extensive examples of migration laws being applied retrospectively, such as recently reformed detention laws, which means a migration overhaul could impact people already in Australia on visas.

How do you vet someone’s ideology?

Details on how the government could vet prospective migrants for ideology or antisemitism are yet to be announced.

Loughnan said that something like the citizenship test, used to assess ‘Australian values’, could be implemented for temporary visa applicants.

She also flagged that going through someone’s online presence could also be a way to screen for racism or violent views.

“Now that’s really problematic because the line between what counts as antisemitic here and what doesn’t is often very blurred and very politically motivated.”

Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration, told SBS News that testing people on their Australian values was a catch-22, as a simple yes or no test would be too easy to pass, and a complex open-answer test would be too hard to resource.

Rizvi said a review could look to change the government’s movement alert list; a database that stores details of the identities of people of immigration concern to Australia.

However, the database needs enough information about the person’s views to be able to make a judgement.

“For example, if Donald Trump applied for a visa, you could test his commitment to Australian values because you’ve got so much information about his views out in the world,” he said.

“But for the vast majority of people in the world, you don’t have that sort of information about. Most people are just unknown people. “

‘Clog the system’

Rizvi said implementing a new test, advanced screening of online presences or in-person interviews would “require an enormous amount of resources and take up huge amounts of time”.

“What that would do is clog up the visa system even more, and it’s already unbelievably clogged,” he said.

“Many Australian industries are heavily reliant on foreign students, working holiday makers and overseas labour.”

He also said that reform could affect people already in Australia on visas, and slow down their applications to stay longer.

“We have over 400,000 people currently on bridging visas, and they are often waiting for years already.”

Loughnan said that a policy change could not only vet someone on their perceived political views but could also discriminate based on “racialised” identity and stereotypes.

She said that people from majority Muslim countries, who may in fact be of a different religion, could be assumed to be Muslim because of their appearance or nationality.

“We still see that persistence of an undercurrent racism against Muslim people in this country, which is potentially now going to play out in terms of migration.”

In the government’s migration strategy, released in December 2023, it flagged its policy goals for Australia’s migration system.

“We are committed to building and empowering resilient communities to prevent racial, ethnic and religious intolerance and social exclusion,” it reads.

“We welcome and support migrants to participate equally in our diverse and multicultural society.”