DIMA Annual Report 1998-99
Immigration and multicultural affairs portfolio
Corporate Overview
Corporate overview
Role, mission and tasks
The Department's mission is "Australia, enriched through the entry and settlement of people, valuing its citizenship and appreciating its cultural diversity." The Department's core business is the managed entry of people to Australia, the successful settlement of migrants and refugees and the promotion of the benefits of citizenship and cultural diversity. The outputs and services provided by the Department overseas and in Australia include:
- visa service for migrants, temporary entrants (eg skilled workers), business visitors, students and tourists including identifying those entitled to lawful entry into Australia, prior to arrival;
- processing people moving into and out of Australia through Australian air and sea ports;
- assessing the character, health and bona fides of applicants for entry to Australia;
- dentifying those entitled to the protection of Australia on humanitarian or other grounds and helping Australia fulfil its international obligations toward refugees and others in humanitarian need;
- locating, detaining and removing unlawful non-citizens;
- identifying and reducing immigration malpractice and fraud;
- increasing the ability of migrants, particularly the recently arrived, to participate in Australian life, through settlement programs including English language tuition and translating and interpreting services;
- administering the Australian Citizenship Act 1948; and
- contributing to maintaining and further enhancing appreciation of Australia's cultural diversity within a framework of national unity.
The tasks assigned to the Department in the Administrative Arrangements Orders are:
- entry and stay of non-citizens;
- citizenship;
- ethnic affairs;
- post-arrival arrangements for migrants, other than migrant child education; and
- multicultural affairs.
Social justice and equity
The Department has assisted Commonwealth, state and territory departments and agencies and community organisations to incorporate in their policies and programs the service principles that are outlined in the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society (the Charter).
Workshops on the Charter were conducted in all capital cities and five regional centres between March and June. The workshops targeted managers across all agency areas who are responsible for policy planning, developing, implementing and monitoring within their organisations.
Migrant access and equity in government programs and service delivery are promoted by the Department through consultations with government agencies at national, state and territory levels.
For example, the Department was represented on interdepartmental committees formed to promote government initiatives such as the national strategy for an ageing Australia and the International Year of Older Persons.
This has resulted in a greater focus being given to issues concerning the ethnic aged in these forums. To further influence policy and service development, more extensive bilateral consultations with other agencies on access and equity issues relating to migrants are proposed.
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Structure and senior management
Issues affecting culturally and linguistically diverse women
The Department focused on promoting responsibility across government for policy impacts on migrant women. This was achieved through raising awareness of the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society. The Charter requires agencies to recognise the needs of migrant women and to address these appropriately in the design, development and implementation of all services.
Through interdepartmental committees and networks, the Department has continued to provide policy advice to other government and non-government agencies on a range of issues affecting culturally diverse women.
Additionally, the Department has been involved in the Partnerships Against Domestic Violence initiative. It has recently finalised a research paper on the feasibility of accessing and disclosing the domestic and criminal violence history of Australians who sponsor overseas-born spouses, prospective spouses, or interdependent partners for migration to Australia or permanent residence.
A video, Marrying and Migrating – You Have to Work at it, was produced by the Department in Russian and Tagalog. It was developed in response to concerns about the incidence of serial sponsorship and violence against women sponsored to Australia as fiancées and spouses.
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Workplace diversity
The Department launched the Workplace Diversity Program 1998-2001 in September. The Program outlines the Department's on-going commitment to achieving an innovative, flexible and diverse work environment that is harassment-free. The two principal strategies of the Program are to develop and maintain a highly skilled and motivated workforce, and to allow staff to maximise their effectiveness by balancing working life with home, family and outside interests.
Department divisions and state and territory offices are developing local implementation plans in line with the strategies in the Program. The strategies complement and build on the innovative conditions of service in the Department's Certified Agreement.
The Department continued to focus on creative ways of raising awareness of workplace behaviour issues. Initiatives included a "stop and think" competition in the staff newsletter, which attracted responses from individuals and teams in many different DIMA offices; regular briefings and screenings; and increased support of the DIMA Harassment Contact Officer (HCO) Network. The first National HCO Conference was held in April 1999, encouraging networking between HCO's in DIMA offices, and identifying improvements to the HCO service across DIMA.
The Department's performance against Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) targets remains good. As at 13 May, 55.6 per cent of total staff were women, with 27.3 per cent of Senior Executive Service (SES) and 43 per cent of Executive Level and equivalent being women. These figures exceed the APS Year 2000 and previously identified DIMA EEO targets.
The number of women at Executive Level and equivalent increased by 11 per cent on the previous year. The number of indigenous staff increased by 0.2 per cent to 1.4 per cent. This is just below DIMA and APS Year 2000 targets, but it does represent an improvement and the Department will continue its efforts to increase recruitment and retention of indigenous staff.
Staff from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds represent 28.7 per cent of staff. This is just under last year (30 per cent) and continues to exceed the APS Year 2000 target of 15 per cent. Staff with disabilities represent 5.6 per cent of total staff, which exceeds the APS Year 2000 and DIMA EEO target of 5 per cent.
In addition to performance against EEO indicators, a small "staff snapshot" was conducted between December and February. About 10 per cent of staff responded to the "snapshot", which assisted in establishing the monitoring and evaluation framework for the Workplace Diversity Program.
Respondents indicated that the Department is performing well in areas such as using the skills and abilities of staff in work areas, and providing flexibility in working arrangements. The "snapshot" also highlighted areas such as career development and performance feedback for greater attention in the future.
Introducing the Performance and Learning Scheme will help the Department to respond to this feedback. In addition to these areas of follow-up action, a range of strategies will be implemented to build on, and consolidate, the achievements already made in implementing workplace diversity in the Department.
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Service charters
During July and August, the Department's Client Service Charter was introduced in all states/territories. An overseas version (see Sub-program 1.4) of the Charter was introduced in the subsequent months.
The Charter includes a statement of the Department's commitment to high-quality service, an explanation of what clients may expect of the Department, clear service standards, an explanation of clients' responsibilities to the Department, and methods for making a suggestion or complaint.
The Charter and its companion brochure Do you have a complaint? are now available through offices of the Department in Australia and overseas and from organisations which provide services on the Department's behalf. These were translated into 19 community languages and are also available electronically. The Charter has already been responsible for a number of improvements to departmental processes.
As of 30 June, 1906 complaints had been received under the Charter's complaints mechanism, with complaints taking an average of 3.5 days to resolve.
Under the complaints mechanism, complaints can be lodged with a service provider, their supervisor or with a complaints handling officer. Complaints can be made in a number of ways including in person (over the counter), by telephone, in writing, or by email.
Most commonly, clients have registered complaints associated with accessibility of service, telephone access to offices, telephones not being answered, and the telephone message system being too difficult. Timeliness of service delivery, especially offshore, is also a common complaint.
The Department also received positive feedback, particularly concerning fast application processing times in Australia, professional and positive staff, the skill and knowledge of staff, and responses to positive application decisions.
Information from Complaints Handling Officers suggest that 90 per cent of those complaining consider the Department handled their complaint in a satisfactory way.
The Department is presently reviewing the implementation of the Charter.
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Legislation/regulations impacting on business
During the year there were no primary pieces of legislation (including amendments) tabled in the Parliament accompanied by a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS).
Subordinate legislation (including amendments) accompanied by a RIS was the Migration Regulations (1994), Statutory Rules Number 305, which commenced on 1 December and involved changes to Student Visas – amendments to the regulations to implement the recommendations of the Student Visa Review.
No Quasi-regulation was subjected to the RIS process.
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Internal and external scrutiny
The Departmental Audit and Evaluation Committee (DAEC), chaired by the Deputy Secretary and comprising each Division Head, provides strategic direction for internal audit activities, and oversees the evaluation function in the Department. Internal audit services were outsourced in 1998 and the DAEC-approved annual audit program is delivered by Ernst and Young.
In 1998-99, internal audit completed a program of compliance and performance reviews with a focus on financial management, particularly revenue collection. Reviews included overseas and regional office financial operations, Central Office accounts payable processes, and credit card operations. As a result, a number of recommendations aimed at improving accuracy and accountability have been implemented.
Findings were also made in the following internal audits.
- Review of Contract Management. This review indicated that processes for contract management could be improved. Recommendations made in the report have been included in a better practice guide on contract management, which is being distributed in the Department.
- Review of Overseas Property Management. This review found that although the Overseas Property Unit operated under difficult circumstances when the overseas property function had been transferred to the Department, it had managed the establishment and consolidation phase effectively. The unit's running costs compared favourably with domestic property management benchmarks.
Following are the main performance audits conducted in the Department by the Australian National Audit Office and tabled during 1998-99.
Audit Report No 5 – Commonwealth Agencies' Security Preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Audit Report No 22 – Getting Over the Line. Selected Commonwealth Bodies' Management of the Year 2000 Problem.
Audit Report No 29 – Provision of Migrant Settlement Services by DIMA.
The Australian National Audit Office Audit Reports 5, 22 and 29 are the only exclusive or cross-portfolio audits in which DIMA was involved in 1998-99.
However, DIMA is mentioned in the following summary reports:
Audit Report N0 20: Audits of the Financial Statements of Commonwealth Entities for the Period Ended 30 July 1998, and
Audit Report No 33: Audit Activity Report: July to December 1998.
In addition, DIMA is mentioned in one line (transfers, appointments, promotions, retrenchments, etc) of a table of various agency outcomes in Audit Report No 49: Staff Reductions in the Australian Public Service.
There are no significant department-specific findings arising from Audit Reports No 5 and 22 which were cross-portfolio audits. Audit Report No 29, which covered selected areas of migrant settlement services provision by the Department, found there was a need for improving planning arrangements, performance information and monitoring, and aspects of administering the community grants program and specialised humanitarian settlement services.
The Department agreed with the findings and is progressively implementing the recommendations.
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Funding for community and service organisations
The Community Settlement Services Scheme comprises:
- funding under service agreements which subsidises the employment of qualified workers by competent, non-profit community and service organisations, to provide settlement assistance to migrants and humanitarian entrants. In 1997, funding was initially awarded for 12 months but was extended for a further 12 months to 30 September 1999. The amounts of worker-based funding ranged from $12 283 to $63 764 in 1998-99; and
- project-based funding is provided under service agreements to improve the design, planning and delivery of settlement services for migrants and humanitarian entrants. The funding was awarded for 12 months and the amounts ranged from $500 to $780 000 in 1998-99.
- Core funding is provided to Migrant Resource Centres/Migrant Service Agencies (MRC/MSA) under service agreements to initiate and manage settlement services for individuals and communities. Core funding levels are determined each year and in 1998-99 ranged from $120 294 to $422 280. In addition, 21 MRC/MSAs were awarded grants to employ humanitarian workers at a cost of $50 748 per worker.
- The Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, which is the umbrella body for various state, territory and regional ethnic/multicultural communities' councils and national ethnic organisations, received funding of $350 000.
Consultants
During 1998-99, the Department engaged 12 consultants for a total amount of approximately $573 870. Details of consultancies are listed in Appendix 5.