The ‘golden visa’ of Chinese cash begun by Cris Bowen in 2012 has been scrapped:
A business visa program which makes up a quarter of all the nation’s migration allocations has been quietly axed by Labor over claims it has had a profoundly negative impact on the economy, including a “golden visa” scheme allowing wealthy foreigners to live in Australia if they make investments of at least $5m.
As was always intended – given the label of “888 visas”, which denotes triple fortune in Chinese voodoo – Chinese dirty money dominated the visa.
The Productivity Commission determined the visa was little more than a money laundering scheme:
Because there are no English-language requirements for the Significant Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa, and no upper age limits, it is likely that these immigrants will generate less favourable social impacts than other immigrants. Further, compared to other visa streams, investor visas are prone to misuse and fraud. Concerns about visa fraud played a part in the Canadian Government’s decision in 2014 to scrap its investor visa scheme…
There is a risk that SIV and PIV might be used as a pathway for investing ‘dirty money’ in Australia, an issue that has been raised for other similar schemes (Sumption and Hooper 2014)…
…the case for retaining the Significant Investor Visa and Premium Investor Visa streams is weak and the Government should abolish these visas.
I would add that it was not coincidental that a few years after the vias came to be, Australian parliaments were awash with Chinese bribes, culminating in the Dastayari Affair and the Turnbull government’s domestic security pushback:
Former New South Wales Labor boss Jamie Clements was seen with an Aldi bag filled with $100,000 in cash after meeting Chinese billionaire and banned donor, Huang Xiangmo, the state’s anti-corruption body has heard.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday began its inquiry into a complex and potentially unlawful donations scheme that the commission has heard may have helped to hide a $100,000 donation from Huang, whose associations with property development prohibit him from giving money to political parties.
Perhaps we should be thankful for the visa.
