The immigration department will conduct a major review aimed at improving visa and citizenship decision-making processes amid growing concerns about national security.
The review, to be conducted by the department's deputy secretary Peter Vardos, will include recommendations to strengthen the legal and policy framework around visas and citizenship.
The development comes amid a federal government crackdown on national security, and concerns about border protection and the rising threat from terrorism.
A joint federal-NSW report into the Sydney cafe siege, released on Sunday, exonerated various government authorities for failing to detect the threat posed by siege gunman Man Haron Monis, but recommended changes to the immigration system.
Immigration department boss Michael Pezzullo says the review will examine how to best improve visa and citizenship decision-making processes, as well as tools and capabilities needed to facilitate the flow of more than five million visitors while "better protecting the community".
There was a need to re-examine how decisions were made to deal with the expected increase in visa applications as well as prevailing global trends in migration, labour mobility, trans-national crime and national security.
"We will empower our officers to say 'no' more often where circumstances warrant and within the law," Mr Pezzullo told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday.
That would be done through better use of information, intelligence and data analytics, as well as ensuring staff had the training and support to make defensible adverse decisions.
The review will start on March 2.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott will shortly outline sweeping changes to toughen up border security, including around citizenship.
In a statement, responding to the recommendations of a counter-terrorism review commissioned last year, he will say "on all the metrics, the threat to Australia is worsening".
"The number of foreign fighters is increasing, the number of known sympathisers and supporters of extremists is increasing, and the number of potential terrorists, including many who live in our midst, is rising as well," Mr Abbott will say.
The prime minister will make the statement at the headquarters of the Australian Federal Police in Canberra at 11am.
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