During the last Senate Estimates, I questioned Home Affairs on their failure to properly vet the migrants they are letting into Australia.

Education is being used as a backdoor to permanent residency, with work requirements being rorted.

23,000 dodgy qualifications have been cancelled. These individuals abused the opportunity given to them — buying degrees and working instead of studying. $11 billion is sent overseas every year by foreign students. They breached their visa conditions and should be sent home—yet only 4 people were found guilty of immigration offences in 2023–24.

With 4.5 million visa holders, is enforcement even happening?

— Senate Estimates | October 2025

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: I’ll defer to that and respect the committee then. Let’s move on to the next question. I want to refer to reporting that the Australian Skills Quality Authority has cancelled 23,000 dodgy qualifications since late 2024. Many of these were in relation to international students, who are here on strict visa conditions. If they’ve been found to be participating in a ghost college or something similar to obtain a dodgy qualification to satisfy their visa, that’s clearly deceptive and a breach of their visa conditions, so they should be deported. Are we deporting international students in that 23,000 dodgy qualifications cohort?

Senator COX: They’re the same questions.

Senator ROBERTS: Okay. I’ll move on. I’m going to refer to the federal defendants statistics out of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which say that only four people were found guilty of immigration offences in 2023-24. It seems extraordinarily low, given the 100,000 that we just discussed. How many people did the Department of Home Affairs refer for potential prosecution in 2023-24?

Mr Thomas: It would be across a range of different areas. For example, with the NZYQ affected cohort, we make a number of referrals to law enforcement for breaches of visa conditions. There are other referrals that happen through other parts of the business. We don’t have an aggregate number, but there is a regular flow of referrals through to law enforcement for consideration where we identify a noncitizen that’s in breach.

Senator ROBERTS: You don’t have a total number?

Mr Thomas: Not on me, and I think finding that would be quite difficult.

Senator ROBERTS: Do you have the resources to refer everyone who may be committing an immigration offence for prosecution?

Mr Thomas: In terms of referring matters, yes. That’s a fairly straightforward process.

Senator ROBERTS: But you can’t tell me how many have been referred?

Mr Thomas: Not in totality across all of the department.

Senator ROBERTS: What I’m really asking is whether every single person the department becomes aware of who may have committed an immigration offence is referred for potential prosecution—yes or no?

Mr Thomas: Where we come across the situation where we think someone has committed a crime or breached the law, we will refer it to the appropriate authority.

Senator ROBERTS: But you don’t know how many deserve to be referred?

Mr Thomas: I don’t have those figures with me. I can take it on notice to try and find out.

Senator ROBERTS: Thank you. So you can’t guarantee that someone who’s in breach will be referred for potential prosecution?

Mr Thomas: You’re asking me a hypothetical question, but, in general, as I said, when we come across an instance where we think someone is in breach of a law, we will refer it to the appropriate jurisdiction.

Senator ROBERTS: My understanding is that only four guilty verdicts out of 2.5 million temporary visa holders in the country would imply it’s not possible.

Mr Thomas: I don’t have visibility of the statistics you’re referring to, but I’m aware of a range of migration outcomes.

Senator ROBERTS: In 2021 there were three million permanent visa holders. How many permanent visa holders are in the country right now? Is it four million?

Mr Willard: I have a figure. I’ll just flag that I’m not tracking that figure of three million for 2021. There are different types of permanent visas, but the figure I have at 30 June 2025 is 1.8 million. That includes 860,000 resident return visas. That’s a type of permanent visa.

Senator ROBERTS: What are the other classifications in that 1.8 million?

Mr Willard: There’s family, offshore humanitarian, onshore protection, other permanent, skilled and special eligibility, and resident return.

Senator ROBERTS: No other temporary visa holders?

Mr Willard: That’s the permanent visa figure that you mentioned.

Senator ROBERTS: How many temporary?

Mr Willard: The temporary figure’s 2.76 million.

Senator ROBERTS: So we add the 1.8 million to the 2.7 million to get the total noncitizens, temporary and permanent?

Mr Willard: The second figure, the 2.76 million figure, is temporary visa holders, and the first figure is permanent visa holders.

Senator ROBERTS: So visa holders in total are about 4.5 million?

Mr Willard: Approximately.

Senator ROBERTS: Okay. Thank you, Chair.