Peter Dutton has been filmed pledging to review a ‘golden ticket’ visa for wealthy investors who spend $5million to enter during a private conversation at a $10,000-a-head fundraising dinner.
Originally marketed as a way to drive foreign investment, ‘significant investor visa’ candidates had to stump up over $5million in n investments to be eligible, with no educational or English-speaking requirements.
But the scheme was scrapped by Labor last January amid fears it was a gateway for spies and dodgy cash.
Now, Opposition Leader Mr Dutton has been caught on camera at a swanky Liberal Party fundraiser – where tickets reportedly cost $10,000 per person – suggesting that the Coalition will bring the ‘golden ticket’ visas back.
The dinner and drinks reception was held for Scott Yung, the Liberal candidate in the marginal seat of Bennelong in Sydney’s north west, which the Coalition is hopping to take off Labor.
Mr Dutton was filmed speaking to a migration agent called Min Li, who told him that ‘everyone was asking’ when the significant investor visa were coming back.
‘I think we’ll bring it back,’ he told her.
‘Whether we do it before the election, or look at a different design for it – we’ll have to consider all that.’
Ms Li subsequently uploaded the footage of the conversation, which was first revealed by Nine Newspapers, to Chinese social media app RedNote where she described the reception as ‘cosy’.
Ms Li, who also goes by the name Sandra Li, is the managing director of Aoye Group immigration business.
It describes itself as the ‘gateway to China and the greater North East regions, giving access to arguably the world’s largest talent pool in advanced technologies, health, finance and consumer services’
Daily Mail is in no way suggesting that Ms Li has acted improperly or is involved in anything untoward.
Mr Dutton was asked directly at a press conference on Saturday afternoon whether the Coalition had plans to bring back the significant investor visa stream when he was at a Chinese Lunar New Year festival in Melbourne.
But he insisted the Coalition would announce their policy ‘in due course’ before praising the scheme, which he had ultimate oversight of in his role as senior cabinet minister in charge of migration from 2014 to 2021.
‘As Immigration Minister I brought in a record number of people through different visa programmes, and we did it in a responsible way,’ he told reporters.
‘The significant investment visa provides an opportunity for people to invest capital.’
Thousands of ‘significant investor visa’ were granted since 2012, with 85 per cent of successful applicants coming from China, according to government figures.
Almost 15 per cent of people in Bennelong were born in China, according to Census data.
Critics of the significant investor stream claimed it was being exploited to ‘park illicit funds’.
It was subject to multiple reviews and was eventually scrapped by Labor in January last year.
‘It has been obvious for years that this visa is not delivering what our country and economy needs,’ the then Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said at the time.
Clancy Moore, the chief executive of Transparency International , welcomed the moved.
‘For far too long corrupt officials and kleptocrats (from overseas) have used golden visas as a vehicle to park their illicit funds in and arguably hide their proceeds of crime,’ she told the BBC.
Jenny Goldie, president of Sustainable Population , told Nine newspapers the special visa was an ‘outrage’ because it allowed wealthy people to simply buy a visa and enter the country.
Daily Mail approached Mr Dutton’s office for comment.