A crackdown on rogue migration agents and a funding boost to home affairs are among new measures aimed at improving Australia’s visa system. The review looked into how the visa system was enabling exploitation of vulnerable temporary migrants and international students.
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00:00 Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neill says the review found serious and systemic issues
00:06 within the immigration system. This was a review that was carried out by the former
00:10 Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon. It found abuses in sexual exploitation, human
00:18 trafficking and other organised crimes because of loopholes in the system. Now Claire O'Neill
00:23 sought to blame the former Coalition Government and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who previously
00:29 presided over the system. She says that there was a deterioration in compliance, there was
00:35 a lack of care and that allowed for some of these crimes to be carried out. She described
00:40 them as some of the worst in Australian society. She did speak at a press conference a little
00:45 earlier. Here's what she had to say. This system has been used to perpetrate some
00:50 of the worst crimes known to humanity, sexual slavery and human trafficking. Delay and dysfunction
00:57 and poor management of the immigration system lie at the heart of the ability of people
01:02 to commit these crimes and exploit the system in the way that Christine Nixon has elaborated
01:08 on. So how did this all happen in public view? It's fairly simple. It was lack of care, lack
01:14 of attention and lack of basic interest in what is one of the most important things that
01:19 the Australian Government does and the responsibility for a lot of these problems falls directly
01:24 at Peter Dutton's feet. Peter Dutton has since responded. He's defended
01:30 his track record and also took aim at Clare O'Neill. Here's what he had to say.
01:35 I'll say about Clare O'Neill, I mean she's a very angry person. Always very angry and
01:40 very aggressive and the negativity coming out of Clare O'Neill today and the overstated
01:48 position that she's taken frankly is all about trying to provide cover for a bad Prime Minister.
01:54 And Chantelle, what action has the Government taken?
01:58 Well Joe, there are five main changes that includes $50 million of additional ongoing
02:05 funding for the Home Affairs Department looking at visa compliance and immigration compliance.
02:10 There are also character checks. They're going to be, I guess, more scrutinising and strengthened
02:18 for migration agents. That's in response to parts of the review which found that some
02:22 migration agents were taking advantage or exploiting migrants. And there's also an operation
02:30 that focuses on scrutinising the system that will be now made permanent. All of this in
02:36 response to some of the findings of that review.
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