Murdoch article drums up hysteria with factual errors

Blatant factual errors in an article published by The Australian on the Government's immigration strategy could have been avoided with simple fact-checking. Dr Abul Rizvi sets the record straight.

*Also listen to the audio version of this article on Spotify HERE.

IN AN “exclusive” article in The Australian titled ‘‘Golden visas’ axed in crackdown on billion dollar passports-for-sale scheme’, the Murdoch press may have set a new record for the number of basic factual errors in an introductory sentence. These could have been avoided with a 60-second check of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) website.

The article starts with the following:

‘A business visa program which makes up a quarter of all the nation’s migration allocations has been quietly axed by Labor...’

There are two basic factual errors in this introductory sentence. Firstly, the Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP) has never in our history comprised a quarter of all the nation’s migration allocations. It has never even come close. This may be some sort of Murdoch clickbait. Or it could be just a failure to simply give the Minister’s Office a phone call.

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News Corp publications and television shows offer little in the way of actual news and rely heavily on biased commentary.

While the planning level for the BIIP in 2023-24 of 1,900 places is lower than in recent years, that represents just 1 per cent of the 2023-24 migration program, not 25 per cent.

Secondly, the visa has not been ‘axed’. Applications for this visa continue to be processed to meet the 2023-24 allocation of 1,900. It is true that there is a very large backlog of applications that has been building up for years and hence no new nominations will be required in 2023-24. But that does not mean the visa has been ‘axed’.

No wonder this article is an “exclusive”. No one other than the Murdoch press could possibly have dreamed up such rubbish.

Quick as a flash, Sky News interviewed the Opposition Spokesperson on Immigration, Dan Tehan,about the article.

Tehan said:

“Are they scrapping these fees and what are the reasons? Are they integrity reasons? If they’re integrity reasons, absolutely, they have to be front and central of everything you do in immigration.”

Tehan also did not bother to check if the article in The Australian had any factual basis.

To do so, he could have re-read the Migration Strategy released late in 2023, which says concerning the BIIP:

‘The Migration Review (also known as the Parkinson Review) flagged the opportunity to draw on the relative strength of the Significant Investor stream to design a visa product more sharply targeted to select migrants who can drive innovative investments in sectors of national importance or play a valuable role in the venture capital industry.’

The Government seems intent on retaining some sort of business skills visa in the future but no decision on this has been announced. The Government is clearly still considering its options. In making any changes in this space, the Government will need to be conscious of the fact there is a very large backlog of applications for this visa.

There are complex issues to be dealt with. But these are not helped by the Murdoch press drumming up hysteria based on an inability to check basic facts. Nor an Opposition Immigration Spokesperson who takes everything in the Murdoch press as the gospel truth.

*This article is also available on audio here:

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Dr Abul Rizvi is an Independent Australia columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul.