Immigrants who "might" do harm in Australia will be deported or barred entry more easily under beefed-up ministerial powers.
Behaviour threatening community safety, social cohesion, respect for the law and human rights will be grounds for removal, but there's now no need for an offence to be proven or for a criminal conviction.
It's part of a raft of changes to Australia's visa character test that quietly entered force on October 31 through a ministerial direction.
How long a migrant has been in Australia, whether they have children, their community contribution and social ties have sunk to a secondary concern in assessing whether to revoke a visa.
"Might" has also replaced "would" in instructions for decision-makers judging foreigners' potential to do harm.
Engagement with hate groups, hate crimes, anti-Semitism, support for terrorism and racist attitudes have entered the character test to align with laws passed following December's Bondi massacre.
Family violence is also now considered much more seriously, including image-based and digital abuse.
"The inherent nature of certain conduct such as domestic or family violence ... is so serious that even strong countervailing considerations may be insufficient to justify not cancelling," the direction reads.
It's part of the long-term fallout from a 2023 High Court decision that found it was unconstitutional to detain immigrants without reasonable hope of sending them to another country.
That ruling, known as NZYQ, led to the release of more than 200 people from immigration detention, including many with criminal records.
Amid outcry from the community over safety concerns, Canberra brokered a deal to offload the so-called NZYQ cohort to the Pacific nation of Naoero in February 2025.
It was that agreement which necessitated Saturday's visa rule change, according to Immigration Minister Tony Burke.
"Ministerial directions always need to be updated," he said in a statement.
"The previous direction was written prior to when the new arrangement with Naoero had been achieved and there were new interpretations which were not consistent with my view."
Labor is determined to tame migration amid debate on the issue, souring public attitudes and pressure from anti-immigration One Nation.
It tightened the screws on secondary visas for foreign students, debuted a ballot for backpackers and detention for visa overstayers in September to bring migration-driven population growth from nearly 300,000 a year to a long-term target of 225,000.
The coalition wants that figure to fall to 100,000 for four years after being elected, then settle at 160,000, while One Nation's policy has migration going temporarily negative before being capped at 130,000 a year.
Making the Australian values test a condition of visa approval became opposition policy in April, when they also advocated scouring migrants' social media and ending welfare payments to non-citizens.
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