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Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has signed a new Ministerial Direction, to replace Direction 99.
The minister has been under pressure to change the direction, after it was revealed several convicted rapists had relied on Direction 99 to keep their visas.
Mr Giles says the new direction requires the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, or AAT, to prioritise community safety when reviewing visa cancellations.
"Ministerial Direction 110 is guided by two key principles. Firstly, protection of the Australian community, and common sense. Since the beginning of the last week, I've canceled 40 visas, and today we take the next step in strengthening our cancellation system, so that better reflects community expectations."
The new direction, known as Ministerial Direction 110, comes into effect on June 21st.
It also requires the an independent tribunal to put more weight on issues relating to family and domestic violence.
"The revised direction makes it clear that the safety of the Australian community is the Albanese government's highest priority, and so includes this as a key principle of the decision-making framework. It also elevates the impact on victims of family violence and their families in one of the existing primary considerations, reflecting the government's zero tolerance approach to domestic and family violence."
There are still 10 cases before the appeals tribunal that would be considered under the existing direction 99.
The direction states that Australia WILL generally afford a higher level of tolerance of criminal or other serious conduct by non-citizens who have lived in the Australian community for most of their life.
Now, the word WILL, has changed to MAY.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson says ties to Australia should be downgraded to a secondary consideration.
"I hope it will be better for the Australian community than Direction 99 was, but on the details available so far, I've got no confidence that will be the case. Because it continues to have ties to the Australian community as a primary consideration, and that will lead the AAT to make decisions like there have been before. What the government should have done is gone back to the old direction under the previous government that had ties the Australian community as a secondary consideration, that put community safety first."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the safety of Australians should be the top priority.
"I give an absolute commitment to the Australian people, that as Prime Minister I would prioritise the security and safety of the Australian people above anyone else."
Direction 99 was introduced last year after New Zealand's former PM expressed concern over the deportation of Kiwi offenders who had spent their lives in Australia.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon says he wants to work with Australia to ensure the approach is appropriate.
"Australia's well within its rights as a sovereign state to make its own rules. As I said the other day, we regret the decision that Australia has made. You know, from my point of view, I've raised it with Prime Minister Albanese. I know our foreign minister has raised it also with the immigration minister. Again, it's just not right that we think that people have no connection to New Zealand, are deported to New Zealand. Obviously, it's just new news about the new ministerial direction. You know, we need to make sure and monitor how that gets implemented going forward."
Minister Giles says Australia's interests are his priority.
"My concern is to act in the national interest. I telephoned, as I told the Parliament, the [[New Zealand]] Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters to tell him about our intention to put in place a new revised direction, to ensure that the principles of common-sense and a protection of the Australian community were paramount when it came to visa conditions."
All of the offenders who had their visas reinstated under Direction 99 have spouses, children and close ties to Australia, but the severity of their crimes, including family violence, rape and alleged murder, have seen the government blame the AAT.
Last week, Home Affairs Minister Minister Clare O'Neil told Sunrise decisions by the AAT don't meet the community's expectations.
"There are decisions that are made by this independent tribunal but that I find very disconcerting. And that I believe do not meet community expectations, at least at face value."
Andrew Giles says the new direction gives the AAT clearer instructions for dealing with these cases.
"This direction is clearer. We are elevating community safety as a key principle. We're also, as I've said, put in place a higher level of consideration on the impact of victims and their families. These are crystal clear directions to decision makers about the expectations that I have, that the Australian government has, and the Australian community has, about non-citizens."
