6th Dec 2018, 2:19 PM – Senate Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 - Second Reading - Recovering legal aid

The majority voted against paragraph (d) of a motion introduced by SA Senator Cory Bernardi (Australian Conservatives), which means it failed. This motion would have amended the usual second reading motion which is that "that the bill be read a second time" (in other words, that the majority agree with the main idea of the bill).

Motion text

At the end of the motion, add:

", but the Senate is of the view that:

...

(d) if legal aid is granted in the Migration and Review Division of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to persons who are not Australian citizens, then the quantum of the grant of legal aid should be recovered via the taxation system in future years".

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest:

The Home Affairs Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2018 (the Bill) is an omnibus Bill which makes various amendments to migration, customs and passenger movement laws. The Bill:

• amends the Migration Act 1958 to:

• clarify that where the removal of a non-citizen from the migration zone to another country is unsuccessful, a visa is not required to bring the person back to Australia and they remain subject to statutory bars on subsequent visa applications, where applicable (Schedule 1)

• provide that the Minister may make documents available to a person by way of an online account (Schedule 2)

• amends the Customs Act 1901 to:

• provide that the Commonwealth may appropriate money from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to pay refunds, rebates or drawbacks of customs duty in circumstances where those payments have no other statutory basis (Schedule 3)

• make minor technical amendments (Schedule 5) and

• amends the Passenger Movement Charge Collection Act 1978 to specify that regulations may make provision for the charging and recovery of fees in relation to the Passenger Movement Charge (Schedule 4).