Migration Act changes
1. Interpreting the Migration Act in relation to refugee claims, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship decided that a refugee could be returned to her or his home country unless it was “more likely than not” they would be killed.
2. The Full Court of the Federal Court abrogated the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship’s interpretation, and held that the proper test should be if there is a “real chance” of the person being killed. In other words, “more likely than not” means someone can be returned if there is a 49-50 per cent chance of being killed, because it is not more likely that they will die. A “real chance” is a much lower threshold – usually around 10 per cent of a chance of them being killed.
3. In June 2014, Scott Morrison (who was the immigration minister) introduced a bill to amend the Migration Act, override the Court’s interpretation, and make the official test “more likely than not.”
4. The Age columnist Tony Wright responded to the federal government’s planned changes to the Migration Actby writing in a piece entitled ‘Scott Morrison’s foul bet on torture’ that even the most “hardboiled” bookie “would baulk at framing the odds on a punter having her toenails ripped out or his genitals clipped to a truck battery. The current Australia government has no such benevolent hesitation.” He noted that, under Morrison’s proposal, asylum seekers would need to establish that there is more than a 50 per cent probability that they would be subjected to torture or death if returned to their home country. Wright pointed out that if the probability was only slightly less than 50 per cent, the asylum seeker would be returned to his or her home country.
5. Student responses may vary. However, students are likely to suggest that, while the news media may have been able to encourage the public to oppose the changes, the media was largely ineffective in influencing the Government to scrap the reforms – the law came into force in 2015.