Australia created a system in 2001 in which individuals who arrived on boats were denied family reunification rights and were given only temporary protected status that could later be turned into protected status. It is worth noting that in Australia, somebody who gets protected status, except for between 2001 and 2007, becomes a permanent resident on that day. It's a complete determination that is quite different from any Canadian scheme.
What happened in 2001 when the decision was made that people who arrived on boats would get inferior protection? Until 2001, most people arriving on boats in Australia were able-bodied young men, to put it bluntly. After the change, when family reunification rights were cut off, the people arriving on boats were more likely to be family groupings, with a greater number of children and their moms. This is a real issue in Australia, because people drown every year doing this and it puts different communities at risk. It was also very clear that people seeking protection were willing to take this risk because they were in very difficult circumstances.
Those particular provisions about having only temporary protection and no right of family reunification were removed from Australian law in 2008 because of the harm they were causing to people seeking protection. The removal of family reunification rights is one thing that is directly targeted at people who are designated foreign nationals under Bill C-31.