The federal opposition is considering reviving a “pay to stay” visa program allowing wealthy foreign investors to fast-track their entry into Australia.
Peter Dutton made the comment to a prominent Chinese immigration agent at a recent fundraising event.
Dutton met with the Liberal candidate for Bennelong Scott Yung, and immigration agent Min Li.
Also known as Sandra Li, Min is a registered migration agent who bills herself as “The Queen of Immigration” on Chinese social media site RedNote where she posted a video asking the opposition leader to revive the Significant Investor Visa.
“We stopped for three years – everyone asked me when is it coming back?” she said.
“I think we’ll bring it back,” Dutton said.
“Whether we do it before the election … we’ll actually look at a different design for … you know we have to consider all of that,” he can be heard saying.
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.
