Golden visas attract dirty money around the world. Why does Australia still offer them?Gold visas and dirty money: why does Australia continue to offer them?

Richardson is also looking into allegations that the department awarded contracts to individuals on Nauru suspected of corruption. Last month, former Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon revealed that the Home Affairs Department's visa system had been used by "criminal syndicates engaged in a variety of serious crimes and profit-making activities". At the same time, political motivation was expressed, but there was more truth in the words of Home Secretary Clare O'\''Neill, who recently spoke angrily against the "blatant fraudulent activity and loopholes that plague this system".

Chapter''Department of Immigration's Mike Pezzullo has been suspended. But one fraud that emerged a decade ago - a pointless and counterproductive visa program targeting the super-rich - has not received enough attention in this ongoing tangled affair.

Now 26,000 foreign nationals have already been granted permanent access to Australia not because they are the best fit for society, not because they have the right skills or high culture. They have been given this precious gift simply because they are rich.

In 2012, Chris Bowen announced the launch of the Business Innovation and Investment Visa Program to attract a new source of working capital to the country. To participate in the program''required an investment of either $5 million or $15 million, or the promise of great entrepreneurship and business activity. It was called the "888 Visa".

The 888 program was quickly uncovered by the Productivity Commission, however, and it turned out that Australia was getting a miserable result from it. As early as 2016, it was found that these visas for significant investors may have actually crowded out other providers of venture capital; that they may have attracted people with "less business acumen" to Australia than if they had come by other means; and overall, they had a "negligible" impact, accounting for one-fifth of one percent of total foreign investment.

The most annoying part of the Commission's discovery is that the tax incentives,'''provided under the program "may mean that the Australian public is effectively paying for a small group of people to become permanent residents of Australia .... That is, Australian taxpayers are effectively funding SIV applicants. "

A group of Business Innovation and Investment Program holders, mostly Chinese, spoke out in June against the delay of the 888 visa. At the same time, the government said the introduction of "golden visas" was sensible as other attractive destinations also sought to attract millionaires from around the world through similar programs. A decade later, Australia is one of the few Western countries that still offers such a program.

In other countries they''have been discontinued not only because they are ineffective, but also because they attract dirty money. The UK's golden visa schemes were canceled last year as part of a 'crackdown on illicit financial transactions and fraud', also because they were found to provide 'opportunities for corrupt elites to gain access to the UK'.

Ten high-ranking Russians who received such visas were then placed on international sanctions lists following the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. In Portugal, for example, half of all "golden visa" holders come from the 30 countries with the worst reputations for money laundering. Fears have arisen that a significant portion of the 5.8 billion euros ($9.7 billion) of funds was''of illegal origin, leading to the closure of the program. In Greece, €3 billion from foreign accounts flowed into real estate under the "golden visa" program (mostly from China), distorting the Athens real estate market. A Greek cabinet minister warned that "most of the money comes from illegal activities .... arms trafficking, smuggling or human trafficking." Chinese money has flooded into Ireland through its special investor visa, which has also been closed. Earlier this year, Irish police launched an investigation following an intelligence request that several Chinese investors were using the same fund to defraud the visa program.

These risks are unknown to Australian decision makers''It is likely that thousands of these visa holders subsequently obtained Australian citizenship.

My reference to the right to information also provided a tiny glimpse of how tightly the Interior Department oversees the program. Out of 26,000 applications, the department conducted only 11 investigations under the good character provisions. The first investigation was not launched until seven years after the program began. Clare O'\''Neil has stated publicly that the program is under review and why it hasn't been shut down yet - it seems to have to do with Labor's internal politics; how do you do that without bringing in''The 'confusion of Chris Bowen, the current energy secretary?

The flows of dark money that circulate around the world have come to light for the first time in the last decade. At home, recent investigations into the casino and gambling industry have revealed just how vulnerable we are to industrial money laundering and the criminal enterprises that support it. Australia must ask itself: what money comes free?