‘Dirty money’: Peter Dutton accused of opening door to Chinese billionaires snapping up luxury homes under Golden Ticket visa plan

Peter Dutton has been accused of opening the backdoor to Chinese billionaires snapping up Aussie real estate under a controversial plan.

Peter Dutton has been accused of opening the backdoor to cashed up Chinese billionaires snapping up Australian real estate again under a plan to bring back the controversial ‘Golden Ticket Visa’.

Despite pledging to roll out new limits on overseas buyers and slash Australia’s permanent migration program to just 140,000 per year, Mr Dutton has been accused of a ‘pea and thimble trick’ where he plans to allow the mega-rich to buy into the market.

Labor’s housing minister Clare O’Neil is now accusing Mr Dutton of “closing one door but opening another even bigger door at the same time.”

Peter Dutton is in the firing line.

He has been accused of “closing one door but opening another even bigger door at the same time.”

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That’s because Mr Dutton wants to bring back the Investor Visa, otherwise known as the ‘Golden Ticket Visa’ after recently telling a migration agent at a Liberal fundraiser, “I think we’ll bring it back”.

“This is vintage Peter Dutton. Beating his chest publicly as the tough cop on the block but behind closed doors promising billionaire overseas investors the opportunity to buy their citizenship and purchase Australian homes,” Ms O’Neil said.

“People shouldn’t be able to buy their way into an Australian visa because they are millionaires, that’s not a fair system.”

Mr Dutton has indicated “golden ticket” visas for wealthy foreign investors could be reintroduced if he is elected. But he hasn’t formally committed to bringing it back.

The Significant Investor provisional visa (SIV) allowed successful applicants to stay in Australia for up to five years and even offered a pathway to residency for those investing millions locally.

News.com.au has contacted Mr Dutton’s office for comment. Mr Dutton’s office stressed that there would be an overall reduction in migration if the Liberal leader was elected and as such that would reduce demand and they argue free up 40,000 homes over two years.

Huang Xiangmo was an enthusiastic purchaser of Sydney real estate under the previous golden ticket visa. Picture Renee Nowytarger / The Australian

Dutton on the Golden Ticket visa

Mr Dutton was recently captured on video speaking to migration agent Min Li suggesting it could make a comeback under a Coalition government.

“We stopped for three years, everyone asks me when is coming back?” Ms Min asked at the Liberal Party fundraiser.

“I think we’ll bring it back whether we go it before the election or we actually look at a different design for it, you know,” he responds.

“I don’t think there’s anything remarkable in saying that we want to attract high net wealth individuals to our country who can bring potentially hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” Mr Dutton later told Sydney radio 2GB.

Claims of dirty money

The visa scheme, first introduced by Labor, is controversial with the Productivity Commission finding the visa was “prone to fraud” and a pathway for “dirty money”.

Thousands of Chinese citizens were granted $5m “golden ticket” visas that buy a pathway to Australian citizenship, with hardly any applicants being rejected under the character test designed to help exclude criminals or those with unexplained wealth.

Figures previously obtained by The Australian showed 2370 super-rich Chinese nationals have been granted primary visas, along with more than 5000 family members, under the Significant Investor Visa scheme, which requires a minimum investment in Australia of $5m and confers an automatic right of permanent residence.

One of Mr Huang’s homes in Mosman.

The view from inside another.

Former Immigration Department Deputy Secretary, Abul Rizvi, has described it as “ a high-risk visa in terms of both ensuring benefit to Australia… and checking the source of money the applicant has made.”

He said there were “strong risks of links to crime”.

Labor argues the Coalition’s plan to bring back the Investor Visa would more than cancel out any impact from the Coalition’s proposal to “put a two-year ban on foreign investors buying existing Australian homes.”

In the final year of the Morrison Government they granted 2,680 Investor Visas. Based on new Treasury microdata analysis of the 2021 census data, 85 per cent of Investor Visa holders owned their own home, and only 15 per cent are renters.

85-87 Bay Street in Sydney's Bantry Bay owned by Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo. Picture: Maccormick & Associates / Huw Lambert

Based on this analysis, it is estimated that there could be an additional 2,278 additional purchases of Australian homes per year if the Investor Visa was re-introduced.

This is significantly higher than the number of purchases of existing Australian homes by foreign buyers. On average over the last four years, there were 1,238 purchases of existing dwellings per year by foreign buyers.

Investor visa holders are only required to live in Australia for 40 days per year, which means it is likely that many homes remain vacant when investor visa holders live overseas.

Huang Xiangmo

One of the most high profile applicants was Huang Xiangmo, the billionaire property developer exiled from Australia as an alleged agent of Chinese influence.

Prior to that happening he was an enthusiastic purchaser of Sydney real estate snapping up homes for himself and family including his mansion in Mosman.

Four years ago the High Court backed the power of the ATO to freeze the worldwide assets of Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo over a $140m tax bill as lawful.

The property developer, whose association with NSW Labor led to former senator Sam Dastyari’s downfall in 2018 and an Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation in 2019, had challenged the international element of a freezing order put in place.

Originally published as ‘Dirty money’: Peter Dutton accused of opening door to Chinese billionaires snapping up luxury homes under Golden Ticket visa plan