Russian dissident Masha Gessen granted last-minute visa
Mostafa Rachwani
The Russian dissident and author Masha Gessen has been issued their visa this morning.
Gessen was on RN Breakfast this morning and confirmed that they had received their visa.
They had said yesterday their visa had initially been “functionally declined” after the Department of Home Affairs demanded documents that were “not possible” to source.
Those demands initially included police checks from Russia, and then police and FBI checks from the United States, where Gessen has never been charged or convicted of anything.
Gessen, an outspoken critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, is based in the US and was due to arrive in Australia last weekend to speak at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas this coming weekend.
Gessen was charged in Russia on charges of spreading false information about the military and was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in July.
Key events
Daniel Hurst
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is due to meet later today with the visiting prime minister of Qatar, a country that has been playing a key role in attempting to broker a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The meeting in Canberra is scheduled to occur this afternoon. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who holds the dual roles of prime minister and foreign affairs minister of Qatar, is visiting Australia and New Zealand.
The latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks were held in Doha, Qatar, last week but ended without a breakthrough. Further negotiations are expected to be held in Cairo, Egypt, next week.
During a visit to Israel yesterday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said that this week was “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security”.
The Australian government has strongly backed the ceasefire proposal that the US president, Joe Biden, has been pushing for the past three months. Wong has called for “all parties” – meaning Hamas and Israel – to agree to the terms. Wong said in June:
The human suffering in Gaza is unacceptable. This war must end
James Paterson then asked: But how could you possibly do all the necessary security and other checks in just an hour for an applicant? That’s lightning-speed approval.
Michael Willard replied:
When we apply that vast range of information to consideration of visitor visas, if you look globally, a very large number of our visitor visas would be done inside an hour.
The assessment is essentially looking at all the information we hold and applying it in a number of ways to the application in front of us.
We have looked for the source of the reports of visas being approved “in some cases as fast as one hour” and one of the official first mentions we can find of it was during a February senate estimates hearing.
During the legal and constitutional affairs estimates hearing, Liberal senator James Paterson asked a deputy director with the immigration department, Michael Willard about some reports he had heard.
Paterson:
There’s been some controversy about this in the media, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, among others, has reassured the public that no processes were expedited, no corners were cut—all the usual processes were followed. But there was also a media report by the ABC on 9 December, entitled ‘Australians turn to WhatsApp group for help to get family members out of Gaza’, in which some individuals claimed their visitor visas for relatives were approved within one hour. Does that sound right to you? Is it possible that a visitor visa was approved in a single hour?
Willard answered:
It is possible. I’d make this point in terms of the way we assess a visitor visa: we draw on a vast range of information that we hold, and we apply that information to the circumstances presented in a visitor visa application. There could be circumstances where someone, for example, has a strong travel record, is well known to us and has a routine that we’re familiar with, where the visitor visa could be granted in that time frame.
Birmingham says Albanese government handling visas with ‘confusion and chaos’
That led to this question in the same interview:
Q: Independent senator David Pocock says Gazans already in Australia should be placed on humanitarian visas. Do you support that call?
Simon Birmingham:
Well, I’m concerned because we’ve seen yet more of the typical chaos and dysfunction in the Albanese government with the reports that some of those who were processed for visitor visas and processed in some cases as fast as one hour, have arrived in Australia, and then there has been an on again, off again situation with those visas, with cancellations that have occurred, some subsequently reinstated.
There is a lot of confusion and chaos underpinning the way in which the Albanese government has handled this now. No doubt there may be some individuals, ultimately who do resettle permanently in Australia, and I trust that all appropriate steps would be taken with them as with anybody in similar circumstances.
(The answer went on to reiterate the points about “chaos and confusion”)
Birmingham repeats ‘security threat’ line on visas and refugees
Simon Birmingham was one of the Liberals who went out this morning to talk about the figures the opposition provided for that story in The Australian.
He spoke to Sky News to reiterate the point, but he also danced around a couple of issues he was directly asked about.
Q: You spoke of the suffering and the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Australia is a compassionate country. Figures show we are accepting more Palestinian refugees than other countries. Considering the dire situation you’ve been talking about, many would see that as a good thing?
Birmingham:
Well, Australia is a generous country, and we are historically one of the most generous countries in the world, accepting more refugees for permanent resettlement on a per capita basis than almost any other country in the world. And that is something we should have a proud record of.
Of course, it’s also a terrible fact that across the world there are many, many more refugees than can ever be resettled. And we face crises in our own region in Myanmar at present, of course, multiple crises in Africa, the continued war in Ukraine. There are sadly no shortage of refugees who would love the opportunity to come to Australia.
That’s why we need to make sure for our own social cohesion, wellbeing and security, that every possible security check is applied so that we have confidence that those who come to Australia are not only the most needy, but also the people who will contribute to our country and pose no security threat or risk to the social cohesion of our nation.
Opposition provides visa figures from around the world for story in The Australian – but are they complete?
The opposition provided figures to The Australian newspaper on the number of visas “likeminded” countries have provided to Palestinians since 7 October, for a story criticising Australia for issuing more.
Australia has issued 2,900 visas, but only about 1,300 people arrived in Australia before Israel seized the Rafah border closing and completely closed it.
The opposition figures from The Australian include:
“The UK has issued 168 protection visas to Palestinians since October 7 but it’s unclear how many have entered the country on other visa classes since October last year. New Zealand has accepted 153 Palestinians for temporary and residence visas and is prioritising applications for those with family in New Zealand.
“Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller said in June that just 254 Palestinians had received temporary visas and 41 had received family program visas, while almost 3000 applications were still being processed. While Canada has expanded its cap on extended family visas for Palestinians from 1000 to 5000, it requires applicants to submit to face-to-face interviews and biometric testing in Cairo.”
But behind the scenes, the government is pointing to the gaps in the figures – that it is “unclear” how many people came into countries on different visa streams.
Jason Clare says growth of international education has put reputation ‘under pressure’
The education minister, Jason Clare, has spoken at the AFR education summit (the Fin hosts a number of summits across a range of sectors) and confirmed universities will learn the government’s plan on capping international student numbers “in the coming week”.
You have heard me speak, I am sure, a lot over the years, about the importance of international education.
Not just to our universities, but to our country. How it is the biggest export we don’t dig out of the ground. How it makes us money, and it makes us friends. That hasn’t changed.
But a lot has changed over the last two years. Two years ago there were 521,831 international student enrolments in Australia.
Today there are 810,960.
Clare said that there were about 10% more international students in Australian universities than before the pandemic shut downs and 50% more in vocational education and training courses.
That growth has also brought back the shonks looking to make a quick buck. It has lured people who really are here to work, not study.
And it’s put the reputation of this industry under pressure. That’s a fact. It has also resulted in Ministerial Direction 107. If you work in international education you will know the impact that has had.
Some universities have benefited from it. But some have been hit hard.
It’s why a lot of universities have asked me to act to put more sustainable arrangements in place. I know universities and other international education providers are craving detail.
That detail will be provided to universities in the coming week.
Albanese meets with Indonesian president-elect
The meeting between Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto and Anthony Albanese is about to happen. Prabowo will be greeted in the prime minister’s courtyard and sign the visitor’s book.
The meeting will be held after that and then there will be a joint press statement – which is a joint non-press conference (there are no questions).
There will be a Royal Australian Air Force F-35A conducting a flypast (at about 10.45am), so if you are in Canberra and seeing low flying planes, that is why.
Watt outlines minister’s role in CFMEU administration legislation
Just before heading into caucus, Murray Watt held a doorstop on the CFMEU administration legislation. The workplace relations minister outlined his role moving forward:
The way the legislation is drafted is that it allows me, as the minister, to determine whether it’s in the public interest to put the union’s construction division into administration. And then it’s actually the Fair Work Commission general manager who would appoint the administrator under the legislation.
Putting that all together, I’d certainly be hopeful that we can have this process under way by the end of the month. We’ve moved quickly to get this legislation passed and we want to keep moving quickly to get this administration process under way.
Environment groups band together to express concern over oil and gas clean up
Six environment NGOs have come together to release a “statement of concern” over the lack of regulation for offshore gas and oil companies, particularly when it comes to cleaning up the mess from the projects.
The Maritime Union joined the Wilderness Society, the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Friends of the Earth Melbourne, the Environment Centre Northern Territory and the Conservation Council Western Australia in launching the statement, titled “The failing regulation of the offshore oil and gas industry clean up in Australia”.
The groups say the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) is not doing enough to manage the industry clean up.
Fern Cadman from the Wilderness Society said regulation failures to ensure offshore oil and gas companies cleaned up their disused and decaying structures was threatening the marine environment.
Rusty and decaying wells, pipelines and platforms can rupture, leak and decay, causing chemicals including oil, gas condensate, heavy metals and radioactive material to spread into the ocean. The longer the clean up is delayed, the worse the risks will become.
Financial industry criticises plan to tax unrealised superannuation gains
A coalition of financial industry bodies and associations have come together to push against the planned tax changes on unrealised superannuation gains.
Last week it was most of the crossbench coming together to announce amendments. This week, it is 11 industry and professional bodies “representing accountants, superannuation trustees, financial advisers and other groups”.
Unrealised gains are when an asset increases in value, but the capital remains “unrealised” – because you haven’t sold it.
Critics of the plan to tax it say it will impact rural, regional and farming businesses, as well as small businesses, who don’t have the cashflow to address the changes.
The group have put out a statement saying:
Unrealised capital gains in the calculation of earnings is likely to cause liquidity stress for many individuals and business entities impacted by this tax. The University of Adelaide estimates that had this tax been introduced in the 2021 and 2022 financial years, over 13 per cent of impacted members would have experienced liquidity stress in meeting the new tax obligations.
Some small business owners will be forced to sell their business premises to save their business. Selling such assets is typically associated with substantial transaction costs and market timing considerations that are likely to further exacerbate potential losses and introduce other investment risks.
