In December last year, a report from the federal Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Migration unanimously recommended that “as a priority, the Australian Government introduce legislation to repeal the liability of immigration detention costs.”   That is, the law which raises a debt against people in immigration detention to cover the cost of their detention.  Legislation [...]

A public and political outcry in November last year, regarding a Doctor being  denied Australian permanent residency because his son had Down Syndrome, led to the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, announcing a Parliamentary inquiry into the health requirements in the Migration Act. Nearly six months later, on May 15 this year, the terms of reference [...]

There is more evidence that, however unjust and dysfunctional the administration of Australia’s immigration laws was in our recent past, it is being outstripped by what has been happening in the USA. There are more and more examples coming to light in the USA that have echoes of the Cornelia Rau and Vivienne Alvarez debacles [...]

The shambles engulfing Australia’s international students continues to bubble along. Even worse, publicity about it continues to bubble along overseas, especially in Indian media. There are now reports that the education sector is trying to crack down on so-called ‘rogue education agents’.  It’s hard to see how that achieves anything more than window dressing.  The [...]

No doubt President Obama will disappoint plenty of people in plenty of areas before his time as President finishes, but one area where he seems keen to make improvements is in the way the USA approaches human rights issues internationally. Last Friday he “announced his intention to sign the U.N. Convention on the Rights of [...]

I had an article published in the main Crikey e-newsletter today, outlining some of the trends, facts and government responses to the well over 40 million refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless people around the world. It seems likely the issue of asylum seeker boat arrivals will once again be moving closer to the [...]

It looks like another case of proper policy losing out to the politics of perception and positioning is unfolding, with the Coalition set to oppose legislation that will scrap the iniquitous, inefficient and counter-productive system of charging people for the cost of putting them in immigration detention. The injustices of this system have been raised [...]

The Age reports that the Business Alliance for Asia Literacy – a coalition of sixty business groups, unions and corporations – is calling for a greater educational focus on Asia, with the leader Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout, saying “understanding Asia, knowing the languages, cultures and traditions and teaching our children about our near neighbours [...]

The temporary skilled worker visa – often called the 457 visa – has been a controversial issue for a few years now.  Some of the criticisms have been based on clear-cut cases of migrants on 457 visas being mistreated or exploited.  But there has also been those opposing the 457 visa all together and calling [...]

However much Australians may like to portray the USA as being far more conservative and religious than us, the growing number of states in the USA which are legalising same-sex marriage suggests the reality may be somewhat different.  The state of Vermont has become the first state to pass legislation to explicitly make same-sex marriages [...]