Coalition frontbencher ‘shocked’ by allegations against a migration agent. But he had been warned

Coalition frontbencher Jason Wood was warned there were “serious integrity concerns” about a Liberal donor and migration agent whom he tried to appoint to a government advisory group, two years before he denied knowing any adverse information about the man.

Migration agent Jack Ta was exposed in a 2022 investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes for being suspected of repeatedly gaming the visa system to help more than a dozen drug offenders remain in Australia – concerns that were substantiated when his registration was cancelled months later.

Liberal MP Jason Wood, Immigration agent Jack Ta and then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton in 2018.

Ta had boasted of a friendship with Wood, donating more than $25,000 to his campaign before the 2019 election, and dining with him and now opposition leader Peter Dutton on at least two occasions when Dutton was home affairs minister.

But Wood, who oversaw the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority under the former Morrison government, told the 2022 investigation that he had a “limited and professional” involvement with Ta and was unaware of adverse information about Ta’s business.

“I was shocked to hear the allegations against [the agent] … the first I heard of these allegations was when contacted by 60 Minutes,” Wood said at the time.

But new revelations undermine Wood’s assertion because they reveal he had tried to personally appoint Ta to an advisory board in October 2020 and was informed by Home Affairs about integrity issues with Ta’s practices later that month.

The warning’s existence is contained in a report by the Australian National Audit Office, published last year, that found Home Affairs’ regulation of migration agents had not been effective over several years.

It comes as the Coalition campaigns heavily on immigration by pointing to the record surge in overseas arrivals that occurred under Labor after the pandemic. Given the opposition is promising deeper cuts to the migration program than the government, integrity has become Labor’s main attack line on the issue.

Wood, who is now the shadow minister for migrant services, has also declared family business interests in a migration agency that helps people overturn visa refusals. He has said that any conflict of interest would be appropriately handled if the Coalition formed government, while Dutton said the situation was “perfectly legitimate”.

Wood was chair of parliament’s migration committee between 2016 and 2019, as it ran inquiries into unscrupulous migration agents. That is when Ta donated to his campaign account, which this masthead reported in 2022. Wood became an assistant home affairs minister in May 2019.

The new revelations, contained in an audit office report as well as documents released under freedom of information, show Wood requested to appoint Ta and four other migration agents as additional members to the government’s Migration Advice Industry Group on October 9 2020.

The day before, Ta had hosted Wood on a Facebook Live chat in which the pair spoke about integrity in the migration sector.

On October 22, Home Affairs recommended that Wood not appoint two of the five agents because the department held “serious integrity concerns” about the pair, according to the audit report.

“In October 2020 Home Affairs recommended to the assistant minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs that he not appoint two [registered migration agents] to an industry advisory group as the department had ‘serious integrity concerns’ about those two agents,” the report said.

“This advice was in response to a request earlier that month from the assistant minister that Home Affairs include five [registered migration agents] in addition to the department’s proposed membership of a Migration Advice Industry Advisory Group.”

A briefing document released under freedom of information redacts the names of the agents the department advised against, and the precise detail it gave Wood about any integrity concerns.

But the Home Affairs department confirmed one of those agents was Ta after a budget estimates hearing last year. “Following receipt of advice from the department, the then-assistant minister declined to appoint Jack Ta to the Migration Advice Industry Advisory Group,” it said in a response to questions on notice.

However, it took more than two years from that point for Ta’s registration to be cancelled, in January 2023.

The audit office report, which scrutinises the department’s processes, said 27 complaints had been made over the 20 years Ta had his registration approved annually, as it used his case as an example of the department’s failings.

“Two of the complaints dismissed, on the basis of ‘insufficient evidence’, were the result of intra-departmental referrals in 2017 and 2018 of alleged fraud and/or criminal behaviour. The department dismissed the two complaints without exercising any of its available regulatory powers to investigate,” it said.

The majority of known interactions between Ta, Wood and other former Coalition ministers predate the Home Affairs warning in 2020. There is no suggestion that they were aware of integrity issues surrounding Ta before that date.

Ta posted on Facebook about having dinner with Dutton in September 2017, August 2018, and September 2019, while Ta donated $11,700 to Wood in November 2018, and $15,000 in March 2019.

On budget night in May 2021, Ta posted a video from parliament’s House of Representatives wing, where he claimed to have had briefings with key politicians. He also posted a photograph taken at Parliament House with Wood and former immigration minister Alex Hawke on his Facebook page in October 2021.

In a statement given to this masthead in 2022, Wood said his involvement with Ta was “limited and professional” and that he was aware of no adverse information about Ta’s business. He stressed he had long championed crackdowns and reforms to tackle visa fraud.

Asked this week whether he stood by his previous comments about his relationship with Ta and knowledge of his business, given the revelations in the audit office’s report, a spokesman for Wood issued a one line statement.

”Mr Ta’s registration as a migration agent was approved repeatedly over approximately 20 years from 2003, under both Labor and Coalition governments,” the spokesman said.

The audit office report took issue with the department’s long delays in taking action against agents, including Ta, that had been the subject of multiple complaints.

“Notwithstanding numerous complaints being received about the agent over many years, [the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority] gave little scrutiny to the agent’s applications for re-registration ... and was not investigating complaints,” it said.

Ta’s registration was cancelled in January 2023, after this masthead’s investigation revealed he had been identified by law enforcement agencies as allegedly running a firm used by Vietnamese drug offenders to exploit the visa system to avoid deportation and extend their stay in Australia. An undercover sting also captured Ta on camera offering to help a man posing as a heroin trafficker get visas for two people he said were Vietnamese drug runners.

Ta, who appears to be living in Vietnam, did not respond to questions sent to him via social media but locked his profile shortly after being contacted by this masthead.

In the file cancelling Ta’s registration in January 2023, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority notes that Ta had “strongly denied the allegation” put to him in the 60 Minutes interview that he “had lodged many unmeritorious applications to keep criminals onshore”.

However, the office made multiple findings against Ta, including that he acted with disregard for migration law, concealed his involvement a significant number of visa applications, and charged his clients excessive fees.

Dutton told the investigation in 2022 that he had “never met with Mr Ta in a one-on-one setting” and “at no time were concerns raised with Mr Dutton regarding any alleged involvement Mr Ta had in the potential misuse of the visa system.”

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