The federal government has renewed its push for legislation to make it easier to remove overseas-born criminals. 

The Coalition wants to strengthen the “character test”, which has already been used to cancel or refuse the visas of 10,000 people.

Currently, a foreigner who has committed a crime but is sentenced to less than two years’ jail can avoid deportation.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke told Neil Breen the government would like the power to stop violent criminals from entering Australia.

“We’ve asked the parliament to give it to us … and Labor and the Greens are sticking to their Opposition at the moment,” he said.

“All the concerns they’ve raised have been addressed: it is very serious offences, there’s no trivial offences in here.”

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