Australia has axed its so-called ‘golden visa’, which granted wealthy overseas investors the right to live in the country if they invested more than A$5m.
According to the BBC, the scheme was originally marketed as a way to drive foreign investment, but it has been ditched in an immigration overhaul after officials found it was ‘delivering poor economic outcomes’.
Critics had long argued that the scheme was being used by ‘corrupt officials’ to ‘park illicit funds’.
Australia intends replacing the ‘golden visa’ with more skilled-worker visas.
The BBC reports that a policy document in December argued for focusing instead on creating more visas for ‘skilled migrants’ capable ‘of making outsized contributions to Australia’.
Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said in a statement: ‘It has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy needs.’
Thousands of significant investor visas (SIV) have been granted through the programme since 2012, with 85% of successful applicants coming from China, according to government data.
The BBC cites Clancy Moore, chief executive of Transparency International Australia, as saying: ‘For far too long corrupt officials and kleptocrats have used golden visas as a vehicle to park their illicit funds in Australia and arguably hide their proceeds of crime.’
In 2016, a government inquiry raised concerns that the visa scheme had the ‘potential for money laundering and other nefarious activities’, while in 2022 The Australian newspaper reported that members of Cambodia’s Hun Sen regime were among the bad actors who had exploited the system.
Australia now joins the UK, which scrapped a scheme offering fast-track residency to the mega rich in 2022, due to concerns about the inflow of illicit Russian money.
[Image: Patty Jansen from Pixabay]