Australia goes to polls on July 2 and the little over 1.7 percent of the 23 million Australians who are of Indian origin will be closely watching one issue that has emerged as a very potent one for all new migrants. Longer stay visa for parents, has turned out to be a major trigger in the lead up to this election.
The story behind this campaign talks of the dynamism of Australian democracy. Australia has a two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system “ the Australian Labour Party and the Liberal/National Coalition. The Long Stay Visa for Parents Campaign was started by Arvind Duggal, an Adelaide bus driver, 18 months ago with a small team of supporters. Their original proposal, driven by their desire to have their parents stay longer and not be alone in India, requested a 10 year multiple-entry visa with 2 year continuous stay blocks. This petition on Change.org was signed by 21,000 supporters and was tabled in Federal Parliament by The Honourable Kate Ellis MP on February 8, 2016. However, this petition was rejected by Minister Peter Dutton, Federal Minister for Immigration and Border Protection on February 9, 2016 with no explanation.
After this rejection by the Liberal Minister, the campaigners began lobbying opposition parties to achieve a resolution to this significant community issue. At this time, the Honourable Tim Watts, Australian Labour Party Member of Parliament from Victoria, gave a media interview in which he supported a longer stay visa for parents. This boosted the campaign. A very active action group then came into force early this year with Rocky Kailay and Daniel Connell joining Arvind in Adelaide and Jasvinder Sidhu and team in Melbourne. Over the last few months, support for the group's Facebook page rose quickly to 22,319. A Facebook group was formed six weeks ago, which has 36,766 members as of June 22, 2016.
After the rejection by Dutton, it was the Australian Labor Party MPs in South Australia and Victoria who invited the campaign to sit and discuss this issue and work out a solution. They looked at the proposal and offered to negotiate a policy that would solve the community concerns as well as be economically responsible to Australians. It took only a few weeks and in late May, the Honorable Richard Marles, MP, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection met with the campaigners and listened to the demands very carefully. This meeting was also attended by senior advisors from Labor Party and Labor MP, Tim Watts and South Australian Labor MLC Tung Ngo. On June 18, 2016, Richard Marles made an announcement that if elected Labour would allow parents on a visitor visa (Family Sponsored Stream) to stay three years continuously and would reduce the out-of-country requirement between applications from 6 months to one.
They included in this a $5000 bond (which exists now with many family sponsored visas) as a buffer to protect parents in the case of family dispute or elder abuse, to ensure proper medical care and welfare, and to make it more economically responsible. The requirement of Australian medical insurance was also included. While overseas medical insurance is cheaper, it seems that often refunds are often not paid until return to the country and not all aspects of health care are fully covered.
So, the Labor announcement is a huge win for the campaign. It is comprehensive, clear and reasonable. This news went viral on social media, reaching over 5,10,000 on Facebook in a few days. Three days after on June 21, 2016, the Liberal/Coalition Government announced what looks to be a similar policy, but using the words five-year period, rather than ‘visa’ or ‘stay’, which left the campaign unclear if this meant a continuous stay or just a visa validity period.
There were many other aspects to their policy that were unclear. It was announced apparently without community consultation. The campaign was thrilled with bi partisan support but had to clarify on behalf of the now 500000 people who follow the FB posts. 'We have to get the best deal for Parents'. They contacted the office of Peter Dutton and two days later the office replied with some clarifications. The Liberal Party offered a continuous stay of up to 5 years. However this visitor visa will be granted at the discretion of the Minister at the time on a 'case by case' basis. The bond will be minimum of $5000 or up to $15000 again on a case by case basis and the out of country stay will be 1 month as with Labour.
The fact that the Minister’s offices has not consulted nor negotiated with the community is a discouraging factor. The campaign welcomes bipartisan support but does not want the changes to be in theory but in practice too. The reaction by the community says it all: ‘Our parents are real people and we want them with us. We need certainty. We don’t mind paying for their health insurance, but we don't want them waiting for ministerial discretion and then being rejected for unknown reasons.’
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CAPTION
(L to R) Jasvinder Sidhu, the Hon Mr Tim Watts MP, Arvind Duggal, the Hon Richard Marles MP and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the Hon Mr Tung Ngo MLC SA Parliament, Rocky Kailay and Daniel Connell
