Their “golden visa” program, which lets rich foreign investors live in Australia, has ended.
It was meant to bring in foreign business, but it was cut as part of a plan to change immigration laws because the government found it was “delivering poor economic outcomes.”
People who don’t like the plan have said for a long time that “corrupt officials” are using it to “park illicit funds.”
More skilled worker visas will take its place.
Since 2012, the program has given out thousands of significant investor visas (SIV), and 85% of those who were successful were from China, according to government figures.
Advertising it as a way to encourage foreign investment and new ideas, applicants had to put more than A$5 million (£2.6 million; $3.3 million) into Australia in order to be considered.
The government looked at the plan several times and decided that it had not met its main goals. It said in a policy document from December that it would get rid of it and instead focus on getting more visas for “skilled migrants” who can “make outsized contributions to Australia.”
Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said in a statement on Monday: “It has been clear for years that this visa is not meeting the needs of our country and economy.”
The EU wants a crackdown on “golden passports.”
C. Clancy Moore, CEO of Transparency International Australia, said, “For far too long corrupt officials and kleptocrats have used golden visas as a vehicle to park their illicit funds in Australia and arguably hide their proceeds of crime.” Moore praised the move.
There was already a lot of attention on the program because of its supposed “loopholes” and “vulnerabilities.” Many people say that Bill Browder came up with the idea for the Magnitsky Act, which is a US law that targets people for abuses done in other countries. Browder has also spoken out against the plan.
In 2016, a government investigation said it was worried that it could be used for “money laundering and other bad things.” In 2022, The Australian newspaper said that people in Cambodia’s Hun Sen regime were among the bad people who had hacked the system.
The government investigation also found that the visas were bringing people into Australia who were “less business-savvy” than those who would not have come. These people were also getting tax breaks that were expensive for everyone.
They say that the follow-on investment from SIVs was much more than the A$5 million buy-in. Some asset managers disagree with these views.
The UK also got rid of a plan to give super-rich people fast-track status in 2022 because they were worried about the flow of illegal Russian money. Now Australia has followed suit.
So-called “golden visa” programs have also been looked at more closely in Malta, which has been giving rich people from outside the European Union quick citizenship. In 2022, an investigation found that visas were being given to people who had only been to the island nation for a few days. At the same time, the EU had raised concerns about the possibility of money laundering, tax cheating, and corruption.
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