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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Paul Karp

Visa application backlog risks causing ‘human misery and economic carnage’ due to understaffing, says Labor MP

Julian Hill
Labor’s Julian Hill has called for an increase in visa processing staff as ‘families right across Australia despair at the blackhole of the visa and citizenship processing system’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Albanese government must invest in clearing the lengthy visa application backlog, or else home affairs will remain known as the department of “human misery and economic carnage”, Labor MP Julian Hill has said.

Hill made the comments in an interview backing the home affairs minister Clare O’Neil’s decision to bring more permanent workers to help tackle workforce shortages, but warned it is a “bandaid and sticky tape job, not a sustainable long-term fix”.

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