Two official inquiries, one by former police chief Christine Nixon and the other by former public servant Martin Parkinson, are equally scathing. Commissioned by Labor’s Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, they found criminals can eke out a 10-year crime spree on temporary visas alone. The number of people in visa limbo has been rising for years, and appeals are slowing processing times almost to a halt.
As for technology, Parkinson found at Australia’s borders it was, in some cases, 40 years old.
Nixon concluded that the laser focus over the past decade on stopping boat arrivals had taken attention from the department’s core business of helping legitimate migrants arrive and settle, and repelling or expelling the rest.