Labor uses WeChat to engage voters on family reunion visas

Bill Shorten has posted an ad targeting Chinese-Australian voters and criticising the Coalition’s family reunion visa legislation.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten speaks at a press conference during a visit to North Coast Radiology in Ballina yesterday.

Bill Shorten has launched an attack on the Coalition’s policy on family reunion visas in an ad targeting Chinese-Australian voters released this week on social media platform WeChat.

Labor has yet to announce its policy on the issue and opposed legislation the government managed to pass last year introducing a new system for the visa that caters to new migrants.

The new visa, which opens for applications this month, has a fee of $5000 for three years and $10,000 for five years, and is subject to an annual cap of 15,000.

Mr Shorten’s WeChat account, and his supporters, circulated a video that slammed the new visa as “unfair” and “a joke”.

“The Liberals have only decided to deal with the temporary sponsored visa for parents they promised three years ago now,” the advertisement said.

“They’ve introduced unfair new terms, betraying their promises … The Liberal Party is making families choose who they want to reunite with — between their parents and their in-laws.

“This visa is a joke … You can’t trust the Liberals again.”

In November the government passed a law that made changes to temporary sponsored visas for parents, without Labor’s support.

Labor argued the law had conditions the party did not agree with, such as limiting the visa to one set of parents per household. In the ad, the party also suggested it opposed the cost of the refundable bond included in the new laws.

Immigration Minister David Coleman said it was the Coalition, not Labor, that had introduced the new family reunion visa.

“The new visa will help thousands of Australian families, and it’s been successfully introduced by the government despite ongoing opposition from the Labor Party,” Mr Coleman told The ­Australian.

“This new visa is just one of many initiatives the Morrison government has put in place to ensure migrants are supported.”

Members of the major parties have been using the social media platform popular with Mandarin-speaking Australians in the lead-up to the election, accusing their opponents of making racist remarks.