Objectionable goods

The new Migration Amendment (Biosecurity Contraventions and Importation of Objectionable Goods) Regulations 2019 commences on 17 April 2019

The new Migration Amendment (Biosecurity Contraventions and Importation of Objectionable Goods) Regulations 2019 will commence on 17 April 2019 and its explanatory statement includes the following passages:

The Migration Amendment (Biosecurity Contraventions and Importation of Objectionable Goods) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) amend the Migration Regulations 1994 (the Migration Regulations) to:

  • insert a new cancellation ground allowing cancellation of visitor visas where:
    • the holder is in Australia and has not been immigration cleared; and
    • the Minister reasonably believes that the visa holder has contravened subsection 126(2), 128(2), 532(1) or 533(1) of the Biosecurity Act 2015 (the Biosecurity Act);
  • insert a new cancellation ground allowing cancellation of temporary visas where:
    • the Minister reasonably believes that the visa holder has imported goods to which regulation 4A of the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956applies; and
    • the visa holder has not been granted a permission under subregulation 4A(2) of those Regulations to import the goods; and
  • amend public interest criterion 4013 so that applicants for affected visas, who have had a previous visa cancelled under one of the new grounds in the last 3 years, cannot satisfy the criterion unless there are compelling reasons to justify the grant of the visa.

Disclaimer: the above is a mere extract of a statement. The views there expressed might not reflect the views of the Department, the AAT or the courts. The law or policies might have changed between the writing and reading of this article. The author of this article and Migration Law Updates disclaim any liability for any action (or omission) on their part based on any information provided (or not provided) in this article and are under no obligation to keep the general public nor practitioners informed about the matters discussed in this article or any other matters, or any future changes to any of those matters. It is the responsibility of each practitioner to obtain access to primary sources of law and policy by themselves and to carry out their own research and come to their own conclusions on legislation, case law, policies and more. This article is not intended for the general public.


Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au

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