The Australian Senate has abandoned its bid to change the controversial 501 law.
If it had passed, more power would have been put into the hands of the Australian government to kick out more Kiwis than ever before.
Currently, visas can be cancelled on character grounds if people have served more than one year in prison but the changes would have allowed Kiwis who have committed a crime worthy of serving two years in prison to be kicked out.
The Australian Senate was due to vote and pass the Migration Amendment (Strengthening the Character Test) Bill 2021 in March but it was delayed at the eleventh hour until after the Federal Election.
Next week, the Senate will sit for the first time since Anthony Albanese's government was elected, and "at that point, all the business currently before the Senate will lapse, so that Bill will not be progressing any further"', a spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Albanese's Labor Party had voted in favour of passing the changes when in opposition. If changes were to be made now, the Bill would need to be reintroduced and the process restarted from scratch.
Albanese has hinted at softening Australia’s approach towards deported 501s but is yet to make any changes.
New Zealand police and politicians believe 501s are behind a rise in gang crime in the country and were responsible for more than 13,000 crimes in the past seven years.
