The Migration Reform Act 1992,[10] which came into operation on 1 September 1994, adopted a mandatory detention policy obliging the government to detain all persons entering or being in the country without a valid visa, while their claim to remain in Australia is processed and security and health checks undertaken.
Mandatory detention has continued to be part of a campaign by successive Australian governments to stop people without a valid visa (typically asylum seekers) entering the country by boat.
According to statistics released by the Department of Home Affairs, the top ten nationalities that featured in visa cancellations on character grounds in 2017 were New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Sudan, Fiji, Iraq, Tonga, Iran, China, and India.
In December 2019, the New Zealand media company Stuff reported that 80% of appeals to the AAT were either rejected or affirmed the Australian Government's visa cancellation orders.
[21] In 25 October 2018, the Australian Immigration Minister David Coleman introduced the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill 2018 in response to anecdotal reports by Australian police forces that some judges had reduced criminal sentences to avoid triggering the criminal record threshold for mandatory visa cancellations under Section 501.
[22][20] The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018, dubbed the Medevac bill, introduced amendments to the Migration Act (and two other Acts), in order to give greater weight to medical opinion in allowing the medical evacuation of asylum seekers to Australia from Nauru (previously held in the Nauru Regional Processing Centre) and Manus Island (previously held in the Manus Regional Processing Centre).
[28] The two men concerned, Daniel Love and Brendan Thomas, could not thus be deported as aliens under the provisions of the Migration Act 1958, after both had earlier been convicted of criminal offences and served time in prison until 2018.
[29][30] The following day, Christian Porter, Attorney-General of Australia, said the decision created "an entirely new category of people in terms of what the government can and can’t do” a non-citizen non-alien, or "belonger".
[32] Under the proposed law, non-citizens convicted of a serious crime involving violence and weapons that is subject to a two-year prison term is eligible to have their visa cancelled.
[32] Dr. Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Australian Department of Immigration, claimed that the proposed law could lead to a five-fold increase in deportations from Australia and adversely affect Australia-New Zealand bilateral relations.
[35][36] During a second state visit by Ardern in early July 2022, Albanese reiterated his government's commitment to amending the Section 501 deportation policy to consider individuals' long-term connections to Australia.
[37][38][39] In response, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews expressed concerns that the Albanese government's plans to modify the Section 501 policy would allow foreign criminals to remain in Australia, endangering public safety and security.
[40] By contrast, deportee advocate Filipa Payne criticised the Australian Government's changes as insufficient, objecting to the mandatory detention policy and taking issue with the clause allowing the deportation of individuals deemed to pose a danger.
[43] In late May 2024, Albanese and Giles announced that the Australian Government would rewrite Ministerial Directive 99 following criticism from Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton that the ministerial direction had allowed several non-citizens convicted of serious crimes including rape, drug smuggling, kidnapping and serious assault to remain in Australia.
[4] It said the Act was largely a machinery measure, with an emphasis on processes relating to entry to, and enforced departure from, Australia, which did not contain a statement of principles but works by conferring extensive discretions on the Minister and officers of the Department.