TRANSCRIPT
Permanent residency, or PR, can be a lengthy process and can take years for someone to get in Australia - but it allows a person to remain in the country indefinitely.
There are a variety of ways for people to get it.
This includes through work, business or family streams.
Or through refugee and humanitarian visas for people who left their home country due to persecution.
But in unique cases, Home Affairs ministers can intervene.
When a mass stabbing in early April killed six people in Sydney's Bondi Junction, it shocked the nation.
Construction worker Damien Guerot was on his way to the gym with his friend.
Then the French citizens heard someone say there was a man stabbing people, and the pair grabbed bollards to prevent him exiting the escalator, aiming to keep others safe.
The act has been labelled as heroic, and Mr Guerot was soon offered permanent residency by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“You are welcome here. You are welcome to stay as long as you like. This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would be a loss for France. We thank him for his extraordinary bravery. It says a lot about the nature of humanity at a time when we are facing difficult issues, that someone who is not a citizen of this country stood bravely at the top of those escalators and stopped this perpetrator from getting on to another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens."
This decision has received support from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
"I support the Prime Minister's generous offer, we shouldn't be afraid of wanting people to come in to our country who're the best, the best people and when you look at those images of that young tourist, or that young French citizen standing at the top of the escalator, with the bollard, putting his own life at risk to protect others, he embodies the ANZAC spirit and we would want people, that character in our country, so I think its a good call by the PM and I'm very happy to support it."
But the chief executive of the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis says while it's great the man was commended, someone shouldn't have to go through a life-threatening situation to be given a secure life in Australia.
“We need people like that in this country. And I'm thrilled he's been offered the right to remain here. However, it shouldn't require migrants and refugees risking their lives being superhuman, and putting themselves in danger in ways that most Australians wouldn't to actually get a fair process a fair go or permit in this country, when it shows how populist and broken immigration system is that it takes something like this for someone to actually get a fair go in a process. My understanding was it may have been getting stuffed around throughout the whole process.”
Mr Karapanagiotidis has been working in immigration for more than two decades.
He says there was a contrast in this case with the way security guard Muhammad Taha was talked about, and says there was racism.
Mr Taha injured himself while helping in the Bondi Junction Attack, but the Pakistani Muslim had a delayed response from the Prime Minister before learning he could also receive a P-R.
“The Albanese government had to be shamed into offering Muhammad the same treatment goes again to the issue of racism in our immigration system, the arbitrariness and the double standard, with one being a palatable white migrant, the other one being a man of colour from Pakistan, a Muslim. It really is damning to see the double standard there. And it exposes the racism of our system.”
Mr Karapanagiotidis says this racism is visible in people who have risked their lives in previous events, but who did not come from an anglo or 'white' background.
"We need to deal with unconscious bias and a racism that actually is what we don't talk about what's at the heart of our immigration policy to this day is, is our disproportionate approach that has a double standing depending on the colour of your skin, where you've come from, and your religion."
Hassan Jaber came to Australia in 2012 as a stateless person, and is not considered a resident in his home country of Kuwait, finding difficulties accessing education and healthcare.
He's a single father and still in a state of limbo, despite helping people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and volunteering at different community initiatives for refugees and migrants.
Also the founder of Justice for Refugees, Mr Jaber says refugees like himself haven't been recognised for their contributions to the community, including during the 'Black Summer' bushfires in 2019-2020.
"We had a lot of refugees in the bushfire, they went and they served the community and they were in the first line for the fire, and they put themselves in danger, and the travelling four hours or four or five hours, or you know, some some people travelling eight hours just to go help from the bushfire. After that we didn't see anyone mention anything about refugees. We have been doing a lot of campaigns that we're giving the blood donations, or the communities and no-one mentions anything about that."
Shankar Kasynathan is the Migrant Workers Centre's deputy chair and a former Tamil refugee.
Mr Kasynathan agrees that it was positive the French national was offered a P-R visa quickly, but says its important the work of refugees and asylum seekers are not forgotten.
"I think that it's important when we talk about fairness and Inclusion and social cohesion in this country that we consider being able to recognize and celebrate all Australians. not just those who we somehow arbitrarily pick. But others. I think it was quite damning and a poor reflection on us as a nation, when we can choose some migrants over others, seemingly to be given the security that all of us seek.”
Sandra Elhelw is the chief executive officer at the Settlement Council of Australia.
She says a lot of people who contribute to Australia might not be permanent residents, like nurses and aged care workers.
She adds that people on temporary visas like Mr Taha and Mr Guerot should have received a P-R sooner.
“They're both people who are already living in Australia contributing to this country, effectively have settled into this country. They should have had permanent residency even sooner, not by the discretion of a minister, but because our system is designed for people to be able to be in Australia permanently when they decided to make their life here.”
In a written statement, a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said that they didn't comment on individual cases.
They added that the Home Affairs portfolio ministers have personal intervention powers under the Migration Act 1958 that allow them to grant a visa to a person, if that minister thinks it is in the public interest to do so.
The spokesperson said the minister only intervenes in a relatively small number of cases which present unique and exceptional circumstances.
They did not respond to questions about the preference of countries and religions when providing permanent residency.
