Digital justice in Australian visa application processes?

Automation and privatisation of the Australian visa processing system may produce digital injustices. As of late 2018, the federal government is pursuing automation and privatisation of visa processing to increase revenue, but this move will cut at least 3000 jobs and, given other experiences in automation and privatisation processes pursued by the government, is likely to produce serious errors. Automation of visa processing is under consideration and it may involve the use of artificial intelligence to facilitate decision-making on visas, drawing on digital tools to achieve this end. At this stage, the exact form of privatisation and automation for Australian visa processing is not yet decided. A digital justice lens is used to analyse some of the issues associated with uncritically pursuing ‘disruptive’ technologies.