The federal government will set up a new strike force as part of a crackdown on those exploiting Australia's visa system, which has been used to perpetrate "some of the worst crimes known to humanity".
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The reforms form part of the government's response to the review by former Victorian chief police commissioner Christine Nixon, who found that "gaps and weaknesses" in the visa system were allowing criminal groups and "unscrupulous people" to abuse temporary migrants.
Unveiling the report on Wednesday with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said the system "has been used to perpetrate some of the worst crimes known to humanity, sexual slavery and human trafficking".
![Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil blamed her predecessor, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, for the problems plaguing the migration system. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil blamed her predecessor, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, for the problems plaguing the migration system. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/209641672/336ae981-4608-4d67-896d-d58e31322a1e.jpg/r0_177_5300_3157_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
On Wednesday, the federal government announced a raft of reforms to tackle the wider exploitation of the migration system, including fraud and other abuses.
The government will inject $50 million to build a new compliance division within Home Affairs, which will investigate immigration program abuses and resolve the immigration status of people who have exhausted their onshore visa options.
Additionally, the government will establish a permanent strike force, which will identify "priority integrity concerns".
There will also be a "significant transformation" to the way migration agents are regulated, Ms O'Neil said.
That will include doubling the staff of the Migration Agents Registration Authority office and giving them powers to impose conditions on agents.
Other measures announced include the expansion of multi-agency operation Inglenook, set up to identify and deter sexual exploitation of migrant workers, to include other wrongdoings within the migration system on a permanent basis.
Ms O'Neil described the response as "the biggest reform to immigration compliance in more than a decade".
The Home Affairs Minister blamed her predecessor, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, for the problems plaguing the migration system.
"I see this as one of the great frauds in Australian politics," she said.
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"Peter Dutton made a career out of pretending to be a tough guy on the borders, all the while he was cutting resources to the immigration function, cutting compliance resources in the immigration function, and allowing criminals to infiltrate this system."
It comes after Nine newspapers reported Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo sent hundreds messages to a Liberal party powerbroker, allegedly to wield political influence. Last week, an independent inquiry was launched and the matter was referred to the Australian Public Service Commissioner.
Ms O'Neil said she would not comment on Mr Pezzullo until the "proper process" was finished.
Asked about the responsibility of public servants administering these programs, Ms O'Neil said she was not going to "blame a failure like this on the public service".
"There may be issues in the public service from time to time. At the end of the day, our names are on the door," she said.
In response to the criticism, Mr Dutton said he would not be lectured on the migration program by Labor.
"I canceled over 6000 visas of criminals, of people who have committed rape, sexual assault against women and men, pedophiles, I cancelled the visas of drug traffickers, and our country is safer today because of that," he said.
"Labor has not done a fraction of the visa cancellations over the course of the last 15 months compared to what we did when we were in government."
He also took aim at the government for waiting months to release the review, which was handed down to them in late March.
Ms O'Neil said governments "make all sorts of different decisions about when to release reports".
"The issues that Christine Nixon raised here are really important, the Australian government takes them very seriously, and that is why you are seeing us undertake a reform effort here," she said.
Earlier this week, Education Minister Jason Clare announced the government will make it tougher for international education providers to become registered and increase student attendance monitoring to crack down on "dodgy and unscrupulous players" within the sector.