Table of Contents
As many of you will know, in February 2005 the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone commissioned Mr Mick Palmer to investigate the circumstances of the immigration detention of Ms Cornelia Rau.
During the process of this investigation, another report, by Mr Neil Comrie, into the Circumstances of the Vivian Alvarez Matter, was also commissioned.
Mr Palmer delivered his report in July 2005 and Mr Comrie in October. These reports were highly critical of the Department and made a number of recommendations – most of which addressed shortcomings they saw in DIMA’s culture and organisational practices.
Both reports found DIMA wanting on a number of fronts and have lessons perhaps for many government agencies about:
communication;
structure & governance;
accountability;
contract management;
case management;
IT Systems;
identity issues;
quality decision making;
leadership; and
training.
Late last year the Government accepted the broad thrust of the findings and recommendations in the Palmer Report and the Comrie Report. This kick-started a major organisational change process.
The change agenda we are undertaking is substantial. It is across the whole department, and has to be carried out against a background of keeping the business going – and what a business it is.
In last 12 months DIMIA has
responded to more than 1.6 million telephone inquires;
facilitated the arrival of more than 5.7 million temporary entrants;
granted visas to over 12,000 migrants. Granted humanitarian visas and then settled more than 11,500 refugees and people in humanitarian need;
heard around 4,800 applications for AAT or judicial review of Departmental or tribunal decisions; and
been mentioned at least 31,750 times on the TV or radio and over 37,800 in newspapers.
Everyday, DIMA staff have to make decisions which can dramatically affect peoples’ lives. We recognise that this is a big workload on which to place such a substantial change agenda. We are doing this in the glare of public scrutiny and in the face of competing (and often conflicting) expectations about what it is that DIMA should do.
DIMA business is complex and diverse. We range from working across government on counter-terrorism and border security, playing our part in the international response to humanitarian crises (in the short and medium term), promoting the benefits of cultural diversity in the Australian community, helping new migrants become active and productive members of that community and contributing to economic growth by facilitating the entry of people to fill skilled positions or who come as tourists or as students.
We deliver services on behalf of a number of other agencies – health, education, industry, security and community services. These other agencies require different approaches and have different objectives and we have to balance each one against the other.
The Australian community also has different expectations of our work. Business wants easy and seamless access to skills and a competitive environment for attracting tourists and students. Families want to be able to bring their loved ones to Australia. Some sectors of the community think we should do more on the humanitarian front, while other sectors want to feel assured that we administer a strong immigration policy with inbuilt safeguards against introduced disease, abuse and possible criminal activity.
Measuring the success of the changes in the light of these competing objectives will not be easy.
To respond properly to the Palmer and Comrie reports, and to meet the expectations of the Government, the Parliament and the wider community, we have identified that we must do three things:
become a more open and accountable organisation;
deal more fairly and reasonably (and lawfully) with clients; and
have staff that are well trained and supported.