Mr RUDDOCK (Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation) (9:31 AM) —I move:

This bill amends the Migration Act 1958 to allow for certain non-citizens to be brought to Australia temporarily.

In September 2001, the parliament passed amendments to the Migration Act to provide a stronger statutory basis for the government's strategy to stop persons seeking to enter Australia unlawfully by boat.

The government's actions and those amendments were in response to an increase in people-smuggling activities which led to larger numbers of persons using vessels to seek to enter Australia unlawfully.

That legislation gave support to the government's intention that unauthorised boat arrivals should not be allowed to reach the Australian mainland.

The amendments provided power for unauthorised boat arrivals to be taken to `declared countries', where their claims, if any, to asylum could be assessed.

The government's strategy is starting to have results. There have been no boats attempting to breach our migration controls for several months. Recent media reports indicate that people-smuggling activity appears to have declined.

The government is also working with other countries to discourage people-smug-gling. The recent conference in Bali was a strong and positive indication of the commitment of countries in our region to tackle people-smuggling.

While continuing to be vigilant, the government recognises there are some situations where it may be necessary to bring to Australia some persons who have been taken to a declared country.

This bill proposes amendments which will allow such a person, to be called a `transitory person', to be brought to Australia from one of the declared countries in exceptional circumstances. The government will not be bringing persons who have been assessed as refugees according to UNHCR guidelines to Australia under the provisions proposed by this bill. To make this clear, I am foreshadowing that the government will be bringing forward an amendment to the bill specifically to exclude these refugees from the ambit of the proposed provision, and we will be making that amendment for more abundant precaution. I do not think there is any doubt that we will make that amendment for that purpose.

The exceptional circumstances that we envisage where a transitory person may be brought to Australia include:

· situations where a person has a medical condition which cannot be adequately treated in the place where the person has been taken;

· transit through Australia either to return to their country of residence or to a third country for resettlement; and

· transfers to Australia in order to give evidence as a witness in a criminal trial, such as a people-smuggling prosecution.

They are the sorts of cases where we envisage that these provisions might be necessary.

In order to maintain the integrity of Australia's border controls it is necessary to ensure that the transitory person's presence in Australia is as short as possible, and that action cannot be taken to delay that person's removal from Australia.

The amendments proposed by this bill will ensure that these persons cannot apply for any visa and thus use our processes to delay their transit through Australia. Details of the measures are set out in the explanatory memorandum for the bill.

In order to ensure that our international obligations are met, there is a non-compel-lable power for the minister to allow a person to make an application for a specified class of visa. Where this power is exercised, the minister must report to the parliament. A proposed subsection 46B(5) requires that report to exclude information that could identify the person and thus protect their privacy. This provision is consistent with all of the other non-compellable powers in the Migration Act.

Finally, should a person be brought to Australia prior to completion of their refugee determination process, the government will ensure that the refugee determination process will be completed in like manner to that which it would have been dealt with in one of the countries to which they have been taken.

I commend the bill to the House, and in doing so wish to express the need for urgent passage associated with the legislation. There may be circumstances, particularly of illness or in relation to other unforseen emergencies, that do require transit. With the parliament likely to rise within the next fortnight, it would be preferable that the bill receive passage during this session. I table the explanatory memorandum.

Debate (on motion by Ms Ellis) adjourned.