Action Needed from New Home Affairs Minister
The Long Wait for Family Reunion
Overseas-born Australians hoping to sponsor their parents to join them permanently in Australia face two difficult choices. The pricier option is a contributory parent or aged parent visa, costing nearly $50,000 per individual. Alternatively, a more affordable standard parent or aged parent visa is available for $5,125, though it comes with an extended waiting period.
Limited Availability and Growing Backlog
The government limits the issuance of parent visas to 8,500 annually, with around 80% allocated to contributory applicants. This is already 4,000 more than what was allowed by the previous Coalition government but falls short of meeting the high demand.
By June 30, 2023, the Department of Home Affairs had 140,615 pending parent visa applications. A year later, this number rose to 151,596. The expected processing time for a contributory parent visa has increased from 12 years last year to an estimated 14 years now; however, the wait for the cheaper standard visa has reached an appalling 31 years.
A System in Crisis
Many applicants will likely pass away before their applications are even reviewed. This leaves both them and their Australian families in a state of hope and uncertainty. “Providing an opportunity for people to apply for a visa that will probably never come seems both cruel and unnecessary,” remarked the expert panel reviewing the migration system.
The Need for Overhaul
Upon taking office, the government assigned a panel that found Australia’s migration system “not fit for purpose.” Another report by former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon exposed severe abuses within the visa system.
Former Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil described the system as broken and introduced a new migration strategy aimed at comprehensive reform rather than patchwork solutions. Significant efforts were initiated to revamp the points system for selecting skilled migrants and encourage them to settle in regional Australia.
However, these efforts prioritized skilled migration over family reunification visas like those for parents—a longstanding issue that continues to deteriorate.
Political Distractions
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has indicated that his early days in office were dominated by near-constant briefings, primarily focusing on a pending High Court decision. This decision could potentially declare government policy unlawful yet again. The opposition has been highly critical of the government’s response to the November ruling, which found that indefinite immigration detention was unconstitutional. Burke aims to avoid any missteps should the court uphold a challenge to the recently passed legislation.
Lawyers representing YBFZ, a stateless individual, contend that imposing curfews and ankle bracelets on all released detainees oversteps the boundaries between executive and judicial powers. However, managing the political repercussions of these legal disputes is diverting attention from more significant issues within Australia’s migration system, such as the tens of thousands of people awaiting parent visas.
What’s the Solution?
As previously suggested by an expert panel, one potential solution is transitioning to a lottery system similar to New Zealand’s. New Zealand annually grants 2,000 parent visas to those who entered its processing queue before October 2022. Subsequent applications are placed into a pool with 500 spots available through a ballot system. Upon clearing its backlog, New Zealand can adopt this lottery approach for all parent visa applications.
Australia could potentially adopt a similar strategy, issuing 7,500 parent visas annually to those in the queue and an additional 1,000 through a lottery. However, even at this pace, it would take 20 years to clear the current backlog.
Implementing a lottery would eliminate the unfair advantage currently given to those who can afford to pay $50,000 to jump ahead in the visa queue. Nevertheless, many families would still be left without visas. Canada introduced a lottery system for parent visas in 2015, offering 20,500 places annually. The odds remain low—about one in seven—leaving over 100,000 applicants disappointed each year. These families may not be stuck at the back of an endless line but are still left with slim chances and ongoing uncertainty.
An alternative solution might be to discontinue permanent parent migration altogether and instead offer temporary parent visas. Although expensive and fraught with issues, temporary visas permit stays of three to five years, allowing time for grandparents to be in Australia during crucial moments like early childhood or times of need.
Abandoning permanent parent migration could be seen as the most straightforward approach since neither major political party plans to expand the program significantly. The current focus is on skilled migration due to its higher contribution through work and taxes compared to services consumed by parents under permanent migration programs.
By implementing these changes thoughtfully, we can address significant issues within Australian parent visas while aiming for broader migration system reform.
Politics vs Policy
Both Labor and the Coalition understand that abolishing permanent parent migration would alienate overseas-born voters in key marginal seats. This is the crux of the parent migration dilemma: major parties’ immigration policies often conflict with their electoral agendas.
As a newly appointed minister, Burke has a unique opportunity to address this issue decisively before it worsens. One option could be to freeze new applications for permanent parent visas pending a comprehensive review of alternative solutions, allowing Home Affairs to work through the existing backlog of 150,000 applications.
Allowing the queue to grow further would be irresponsible, as it falsely raises hopes for a visa that may never materialize. Hard decisions will eventually be necessary.
For over a decade, previous ministers have deferred this issue. Now, it’s up to Burke to take action.
