This discussion paper describes the rise of character provisions in Commonwealth laws over the last ten years. The use of character testing has increased in traditional areas, such as migration and citizenship, and has moved into new areas of law, such as the employment of persons in critical industries and criminal law. The first time...

Elizabeth Proust was commissioned earlier this year to examine the extent to which the minister should make personal decisions and whether alternative arrangements could be pursued. She makes six recommendations focusing on immediate steps to manage the current processes as well as identifying possible changes for the future. According to the government, the department has...

The Migration Act requires that a non-citizen who is detained is liable to pay the Australian government the costs of his or her detention. This liability includes costs for the transportation of the person to and from an immigration detention centre and the daily maintenance amount for each day the person spends in detention. In...

This paper deals with one aspect of the European transnational public sphere: the Arabic language media. An astonishing range, both national and transnational, is available. This paper inserts the issue of transnational media, in Arabic language in particular, into the vexed debate about citizenship in the European context.

In 2005 and 2006, the Australian Government referred to the Commonwealth Ombudsman the cases of 247 people who had been detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and later released on the basis that they could not be detained any longer as an unlawful non-citizen. The Ombudsman’s office agreed to investigate and report...