Migration Act Australia: Understanding Section 501

Australia is known for its generosity, but this hospitality is not unconditional. Non-citizens are welcomed as guests, and serious crimes can break that welcome. This principle is understood when visas are granted, and it is fundamental to how Australians maintain a safe and fair society. 

Under section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), there is a provision to cancel visas when individuals fail the character test. This includes people who receive 12 months or more of prison sentences, regardless of whether those sentences stem from different courts, states, territories, or are served concurrently. 

However, without connected national data, the application of the law does not function as intended. 

We are calling for the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee to conduct a comprehensive review of how section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) is administered in practice, focusing on identifying improvements. 

This review must examine whether individuals who fail the character test are being overlooked due to fragmented data collection, reporting, and sharing arrangements among Commonwealth, State, and Territory agencies. It should identify any intergovernmental, inter-jurisdictional, and cross-agency bottlenecks, blind spots, or systemic failures that hinder the timely identification of non-citizens who meet the criteria for visa cancellation under section 501. 

The review must recommend practical, enforceable solutions, including the potential establishment of a Mandatory National Non-Citizen Criminal Sentencing Register (MNNCSR) to ensure that all relevant criminal outcomes are automatically captured, aggregated, and sent to the Commonwealth for character test assessment. 

Furthermore, the Australian Senate should explore any additional legislative, administrative, or operational measures necessary to ensure section 501 operates as intended by Parliament—namely, the lawful and timely removal of non-citizens who fail the character test. 

We urge the Hon. Tony Burke, as Minister of Home Affairs, to act swiftly to apply section 501 to its full extent for those who have failed the character test, both retrospectively and moving forward.