How the government's new migration crackdown could give domestic abusers more power

After a six-week delay, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has announced changes to the migration system.

Amid all the analysis and discussion it triggered, there was nothing to indicate an understanding that these changes need to have a safety net for victim-survivors of domestic and family violence .

There has been significant work documenting the connection between temporary migration and domestic and family violence.

This includes the ways the migration system can be weaponised by perpetrators and can punish victim-survivors (including by excluding them from access to support).

The largest national study of migrant and refugee women found that one in three experienced domestic and family violence .

Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.

It also found temporary migrants were more likely to experience violence, and specifically violence connected to their visa status.

Migration policy as it is now provides a safety net for women on partner visas with a pathway to permanency — the family violence provisions.

However, many women are in relationships with abusive partners and in many cases have children with perpetrators who do not hold a partner visa. This includes:

In some cases, perpetrators lie about visa status. Women are tricked into believing they hold partner visas, but actually enter the country on visitor visas.

Migrant women who experience violence in Australia are denied many forms of domestic and family violence-related support.

They also have limited claims to remaining in Australia if they want to.

Notably, to date, there is limited commitment to addressing these issues in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and their children.

In his National Press Club address, Burke announced a number of changes . I highlight just one to show the importance of why recognising the reality of domestic and family violence matters in any changes to migration system settings is urgent.