The immigration minister is set to gain extraordinary new powers with the Senate prepared to pass the government’s rush to make it easier to deport non-citizens.
That hurriedly introduced legislation — which compels non-citizens facing deportation to cooperate and enables the government to block visas for citizens from countries failing to accept the return of their citizens — is expected to pass the parliament less than 48 hours after it was introduced.
It relates to a cohort of non-citizens who have exhausted all legal avenues for remaining in Australia and requires them to cooperate with efforts to remove them, including applying for a passport from their country of origin.
Members of that group are either in immigration detention or on bridging visas. If they fail to comply they face mandatory sentences of between one and five years in jail.
The legislation, which was only introduced at midday on Tuesday, also allows the immigration minister to designate a country as a removal concern country, meaning processing of visa applications from that country’s citizens could be paused.
Political reporters Nicole Hegarty and Monte Bovill have more here:
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