Legislative Updates

According to the explanatory memorandum to the Bill introduced on 19 September 2019, "a person who is a national or citizen of a country other than Australia ceases to be an Australian citizen if the person acts inconsistently with their allegiance to Australia by" engaging in certain type of conduct. Is this Bill a further erosion of the "sacred" concept of citizenship? Could it become a "slippery slope" towards citizenship cancellation on less serious, more subjective grounds?

"The instrument operates to specify temporary visa subclasses which may lead to permanent visas for subparagraphs 4005(2)(b)(ii) and 4007(1A)(b)(ii) of Schedule 4 to the Regulations"

The new legislative instrument specifies the postcodes that constitute "regional areas" for the purposes of the new regional visas and subclasses 189, 190, 888 and 892

The new Regulations 'allow citizenship application fees ... and refunds ... to be paid in foreign currencies and in foreign countries, and [align] the concession codes in Schedule 3 with the concession codes currently employed by the Department of Human Services'

The new instrument specifies the language test requirements for an applicant to the Specialist Skills stream and Core Skills stream of the Subclass 482 (Skills in Demand) visa

"The purpose of the instrument is to amend the Migration Regulations in relation to visa applicants and visa holders who pose an unreasonable risk of unwanted critical technology knowledge transfer"

'If a Minister purports to... perform a function... that is conferred or imposed on another Minister by an Act, the... performance of that function... is not invalid merely because the... function... is conferred or imposed on the other Minister'.

The new instrument specifies exempt occupations for the following visa subclasses: 482 (TSS), 457, 186, 187 and 494

The new regulations amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) to "to cease certain bridging visas, held by a non-citizen if they have been determined by the Foreign Minister or their delegate, as a person whose presence in Australia may be directly or indirectly associated with ..."

The new legislative instrument specifies the period, manner and evidence of Labour Market Testing for the purposes of visa subclasses 457, 482 (TSS) and 494 (new regional visa)