The federal opposition is thinking about reintroducing a “pay to stay” visa scheme that would allow affluent foreign investors to speed up their entry into Australia.
Peter Dutton mentioned this idea to a well-known Chinese immigration agent during a recent fundraising event.
“We stopped for three years – everyone asked me when is it coming back?” she said.
“I think we’ll bring it back,” Dutton said.
Dutton had a meeting with Scott Yung, the Liberal candidate for Bennelong, and immigration agent Min Li, also known as Sandra Li. Min is a registered migration agent who promotes herself as “The Queen of Immigration” on the Chinese social media platform RedNote. She posted a video on RedNote urging the opposition leader to bring back the Significant Investor Visa.
The Significant Investor Visa was previously available to fast track wealthy applicants investing a minimum of $5 million in Australia.
It had no age limit, no education requirements and no English test.
Launched under Julia Gillard in 2012, a productivity commission report warned of a potential for money laundering and nefarious activities.
It was scrapped by the Albanese Government.
Today Peter Dutton was asked whether the coalition was going to bring the program back.
“The investment visa provides an opportunity for people to invest capital, that’s exactly what we want from our migrant program,” he said.
More detail will come with the coalition still vowing to reduce immigration.
“As Immigration Minister, I brought in a record number of people through different visa programs and we did it in a responsible way,” Dutton said.
