A new paper produced by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) aims to help external stakeholders understand how it administers Australia’s Immigration Program.
The paper outlines how the combined factors of large-scale growth in the movement of people across borders and the changing threat environment over the past two decades have necessitated a shift in approach to the administration of the program.
It says the new approach ensures Australia’s security, economic and social cohesion objectives now and into the future continue to be supported.
The paper says that while immigration was central to Australia’s national story, effective administration of the program was essential to maintaining Australia’s sovereignty, economic prosperity, community safety and its place as one of the most peaceful, united and culturally diverse countries in the world.
“Our people-to-people links provide tremendous opportunities and benefits to Australia and help to shape the perception of Australia around the world,” the paper says.
“The systems, processes and capabilities required to achieve effective facilitation, counter threats and mitigate risk must be as dynamic as the changing global environment the Department of Home Affairs operates in.”
The paper noted that the total number of non-humanitarian visa applications lodged by people seeking to enter or remain in Australia had grown markedly in recent years.
“Despite this growth, the Department has achieved greater levels of productivity, finalising more applications each year by encouraging the uptake of online lodgement (which reduces manual data entry) continually improving systems and processes and increasingly consolidating visa processing into ‘hubs’ that are able to achieve improved efficiency, consistency and integrity outcomes,” it said.
DHA’s 10-page paper can be accessed at this PS News link.
