EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Act 2013
Proclamation
Item 2 of the table in subsection 2(1) of the Migration Amendment (Reform of Employer Sanctions) Act 2013 (the Act) provides that Schedule 1 to the Act is to commence on a single day to be fixed by Proclamation. However, if the provisions(s) do not commence within the period of 6 months beginning on the day this Act receives the Royal Assent, they commence on the day after the end of that period. The Act received the Royal Assent on
14 March 2013.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 1 June 2013 as the day on which Schedule 1 to the Act commences.
The Act implements the Government’s response to the independent report entitled Report of the 2010 Review of the Migration Amendment (Employer Sanctions) Act 2007 (the Howells Review) conducted by independent legal expert Mr Stephen Howells. Mr Howells found that the employer sanctions framework was wholly ineffective as a deterrent against the number of employers and labour intermediaries who persist in allowing or referring non-citizens to work without the required permission under the Migration Act 1958. The Act gives effect to the Government’s policy of developing an enforcement strategy that can be used to deter illegal work hire practices and sanction employers and labour suppliers who persist in
non-compliant behaviour.
Schedule 1 to the Act contains the operative provisions of the Act, which amends the Migration Act 1958 to make changes to the criminal offences and supplement them with new non-fault civil penalty provisions (the work-related offences and work-related provisions). These work-related offences and provisions would be contravened in circumstances where a person allows an unlawful non-citizen to work, refers an unlawful non-citizen to a third person for work, allows a lawful non-citizen to work in breach of a work-related visa condition, or refers a lawful non-citizen to a third person for work in breach of a work-related visa condition.
Infringement notices are available to persons who contravene the work-related civil penalty provisions as an alternative to proceedings for a civil penalty order. The amendments also introduce new investigation powers to allow authorised officers to gather evidence of suspected breaches of the work-related offences and provisions.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.