Angus Taylor: Liberal leader wants social media checks for immigrants applying for visas under new crackdown

Security agencies would cooperate to scrutinise the social media of people applying for visas under a new policy Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has unveiled.

The Liberal leader said the plan would bolster efforts already happening by establishing a cross-agency taskforce to carry out the checks.

However, visa applicants would still be screened on a “risk-weighted” basis as happens now, rather than everyone being scrutinised.

“You have to look at where someone’s coming from and any signs that there’s some risk,” Mr Taylor said ahead of a speech on Tuesday morning where he will outline part of the Coalition’s long-awaited migration policy.

“We will establish an agency cross-border task force that will be able to get access to people’s social media accounts and whatever else is needed to ensure that the right people come to this country.”

The social media checks would happen both before people arrived in Australia and when they were here, and would likely involve the use of AI.

Scrutinising social media as part of granting entry to Australia is similar to measures the Trump administration has put in place for America.

But shadow Home Affairs minister Jonno Duniam said the Coalition was “not talking about copying America in any way”.

Under the new plan, a Coalition government would also make an existing Australian values statement a legally enforceable condition of all visas, which Mr Taylor said would “put up the red light to radicals, to extremists who don’t share our values”.

It also plans to deport the 65,000 people with cancelled student or protection visas still in Australia.