EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Migration Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2008
Proclamation
The Migration Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2008 (the ‘Amendment Act’) improves the effectiveness of migration and citizenship legislation and ensures consistency with Australia’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 1961.
Schedule 2 to the Amendment Act makes a range of amendments to strengthen and improve the border protection provisions in the Migration Act 1958 (the ‘Act’). The items to be proclaimed include measures to: clarify when a special purpose visa ceases; clarify that the obligation for operators of aircraft and ships to report applies in relation to each passenger and crew member; replace the set time frames for pre-arrival reporting in the Act with a power to prescribe the time frames in the Migration Regulations 1994 (to ensure the time frames align with the timeframes under the Customs Act 1901 and Customs Regulations 1926); and make persons on board international passenger cruise ships travelling on round trip cruises subject to immigration clearance on their return to Australia.
Items 1, 2 and 3 of Schedule 2 clarify when a special purpose visa ceases. The amendments allow for special purpose visas to cease at the end of a specified day; and where certain provisions of the Act apply, specify when, and in which circumstances, a special purpose visa ceases to be in effect.
Items 12 and 13 of Schedule 2 clarify that the obligation for operators of aircraft and ships to report on passengers and crew members applies in relation to each passenger and crew member.
Items 14 and 15 of Schedule 2 remove the time frames for pre-arrival reporting in the Act and replace them with a power to prescribe them in the Migration Regulations 1994; and provide that matters of a transitional nature arising out of the prescription of the timeframes may also be provided for in those Regulations. Associated amendments to the Migration Regulations 1994 are proposed in a separate Minute.
Items 18, 19 and 20 of Schedule 2 provide that persons on board international passenger cruise ships travelling on round trip cruises are subject to immigration clearance on their return to Australia unless the Minister or Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship exempts the persons by determination in writing.
Item 2 of the table in subsection 2(1) of the Amendment Act provides that Schedule 2 to the Amendment Act commences on a day or days to be fixed by Proclamation. However, if any of the provision(s) in Schedule 2 do not commence within the period of six months beginning on the day on which the Amendment Act receives the Royal Assent, they are to commence on the first day after the end of that six month period. The Amendment Act received the Royal Assent on 15 September 2008.
The Proclamation fixes 15 February 2009 as the day on which items 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19 and 20 in Schedule 2 commence.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.