Indonesian family granted permanent residency after ministerial intervention

Lily Lumintang was reading an ABC story about her family's plea to remain in Australia when her lawyer called to say Home Affairs had granted them permanent residency.

Migration lawyer Andrew Woo grew teary as he informed his client that Assistant Minister for Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite had personally intervened to grant Ms Lumintang, her partner Martin Cahyo and their two sons visas.

"Our prayers were answered through the work of the minister and other parties who were involved," Ms Lumintang told the ABC.

The family first applied for permanent residency in 2021. However, their application was rejected because of "undue costs to the Australian community" of paying for the care of their older son Jonathan, 14, who has cerebral palsy.

An appeals tribunal upheld the decision in 2023, estimating that Jonathan's treatment by health and community workers would cost the public purse $2.51 million over 10 years.

The family then lodged a request for ministerial intervention in October 2024. And until Mr Thistlethwaite's decision this week, they were facing deportation.

Hopes for 'no more discrimination'

Home Affairs said the minister had personally considered the family's circumstances and had "decided to exercise the public interest power in your case", substituting the administrative appeals tribunal's rulings with "a more favourable decision".

Mr Woo, the lawyer, said it marked the end of a four-year emotional rollercoaster, bringing "a huge sense of relief … knowing that Lily's family can finally move forward as a family".

"I could not be happier with the timing as Raphael is turning four years old in the next few months and can finally spend some quality time with his brother, Jonathan, who will join the family in the near future," Mr Woo said.

Jonathan was born in Melbourne in 2010 and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy due to abnormalities in his corpus callosum — a bundle of nerves between the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

When Jonathan was 18 months old, Mr Cahyo brought him back to their Indonesian hometown of Surabaya, a 45-minute flight from Bali, due to "family issues", while Ms Lumintang remained in Melbourne to work.

Jonathan has lived in Indonesia ever since, even though Mr Cahyo returned to Melbourne in 2017, intending to bring him back once the family was financially equipped to do so.

Because Jonathan lived most of his life in Indonesia with his grandparents, he was ineligible for an automatic migration health waiver for children with a disability — something that was introduced by the federal government last year and requires the children to have lived in Australia for more than half their life.

Ms Lumintang said she believed a new chapter together in Australia would mean more respect and equality for Jonathan as a person with disability.

"It's different to doing an English test if somebody wants to migrate — [disability] is out of our control," she said.

"I wish to see no more discrimination, especially in financial terms, against children with disability."

The ABC has contacted Home Affairs for comment regarding the granting of the family's visas.

The department previously told the ABC it did not comment on individual cases.

"It's the end of our long journey," Ms Lumintang said.

Read the story in bahasa Indonesia