Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test and Other Provisions) Bill 2011

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill a third time.

This means that the bill is now passed in the Senate and, as it has already passed in the House of Representatives and so will now become law.

Background of the bill

This bill amends the Migration Act 1958 to enable the minister to refuse to grant, or to cancel, a visa or temporary safe haven visa when a person has been convicted of a criminal offence:

• while in immigration detention
• during an escape from immigration detention
• following an escape from immigration detention, or
• for escaping from immigration detention.

It also increases the penalty for the manufacture, possession, use or distribution of weapons by immigration detainees from three to five years imprisonment.

The bill was introduced in response to protests at the Christmas Island Immigration Centre in March 2011 and the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in April 2011.