A ministry spokesperson told iTWire, in response to a query whether Australia would stop issuing visas to employees of the Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Technologies who are found to be assisting authoritarian governments in violating human rights, including in China's western Xinjiang Province, that the inquiry into setting up this kind of regime was due to report to later this year.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the visa denial policy at a news conference on Wednesday.

"The [Australian] Government will carefully consider its [the inquiry's] recommendations," the spokesperson added.

It is understood that Australia regularly discusses respective sanctions frameworks and settings with like-minded countries.

The Magnitksy Act is a law in the US — known in full as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 — which was passed with the intention of punishing Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009 and also to grant permanent normal trade relations status to Russia, according to Wikipedia.

The DFAT spokesperson added: "The Australian Government has serious concerns about the treatment of Uighurs in China and has consistently urged China to cease the arbitrary detention of Uighurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang."