Decisions to cancel the visas of criminals who are not Australian citizens on character grounds will be protected under proposed new laws.
The federal government said legislation, introduced to parliament on Wednesday, was necessary to keep Australians safe.
It is in response to a case before the High Court challenging the validity of laws that prevent the disclosure of information given to the immigration department by police or intelligence agencies to support character-based rulings.
Government minister Michael McCormack said if the High Court was to rule them invalid, there was a real risk several non-citizens of serious character concern could be released from immigration detention and into the Australian community.
"These would present an unacceptable risk to the Australian community and would understandably undermine public confidence in the integrity of Australia's migration framework," he told MPs.
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The purpose of this bill was to uphold the visa cancellations and application refusals on character grounds of certain non-citizens who had committed crimes in Australia and who pose a risk to the Australian community.
Since late 2014, when the government tightened character provisions in the Migration Act, the immigration minister has cancelled the visas of more than 2600 non-citizen criminals.
Among those were more than 140 organised crime figures.
"It is essential that the government can take action where non-citizens in Australia do not abide by the law and engage in criminal activity," Mr McCormack said.
