Matters of Urgency — Migration

Glenn Sterle

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator Hanson, submitted under standing order 75 today, which has also been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

That in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Labor government to abandon its migration policies that will add an extra 1 million people to Australia's population over the next four years on top of the 1.6 million people Labor has already added since coming to office.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Pauline Hanson

I move:

That in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Labor government to abandon its migration policies that will add an extra 1 million people to Australia's population over the next four years on top of the 1.6 million people Labor has already added since coming to office.

I'll tell the Australian people why the government are doing this. The government is using mass migration to prop up the GDP and to cover up their economic mismanagement. Now the Australian people have a choice. One Nation will cut the number of temporary visa holders in the country by more than 750,000 over a period of three years. Labor intend to add an extra million. Some people aren't reading One Nation's policies. Why? It's because they choose to ridicule us just because we're One Nation.

We aren't cutting backpackers, WHMs. We're not cutting the PALM scheme. We aren't cutting any skilled temporary migrants. One Nation will cut the number of temporary visa holders to 2017 levels. The economy didn't crash in 2017, and, in fact, many Australians were better off. We will also restore the number of temporary international students to 2015 levels, a time when our universities were strong and served the national interest. We will stop international students and temporary skilled workers bringing their entire families over.

Our principles on migration are simple. Temporary migrants should come for a limited period of time by themselves and leave when their visa is over. Those who illegally overstay should be deported. The Albanese Labor government are trying to reach their targets by cracking down on backpackers and tourists. Labor's attacks will cause economic destruction in our hospitality, farming and tourism sectors. The government is trying to pull statistical tricks to game the numbers. They've lied to Australians about how many skilled migrants are arriving. Minister Burke is finally delivering his plan to add a million more migrants at the National Press Club tomorrow. He's been running scared from One Nation and his own cabinet because we are putting pressure on the major parties to act on behalf of the Australian people, who have been screaming out for this for years. One Nation is implementing the will of the people on migration, because they have been ignored for far too long. Cut migration, and Australian living standards will go up.

Andrew Bragg

I welcome the opportunity to make some comments about migration, and I note that, in the Senate tonight, we are probably the most successful migration nation that the world has known, because we have been able to subsume millions of people since the first fleet arrived in Sydney some 250 years ago. Over the last 75 years, I make the point that the Liberal Party has been a party which has heavily supported an orderly migration scheme. If you go back to the post-war period, Menzies in particular presided over the huge boom in postwar migration, which reshaped modern Australia. Then of course, Harold Holt dismantled the White Australia policy, and then we had Malcolm Fraser, who was known as the great humanitarian, perhaps most for his admission of the Vietnamese refugees, who were at a loss because of a conflict which we participated in, while others declined to support their entry to Australia.

I make the point that, over the last 75 years or so, there has been strong support for building up Australia as a migrant nation, because we've needed people, and that's been done in the last few decades on the basis of nondiscrimination. I think that's an important point to make. Over the last few years, I would say that the confidence in the migration settings have begun to fray. We have seen 1.5 million people come into this country—on track for 2 million—over the course of Labor's term in office. That has been the biggest surge in our migrant population since the postwar boom, and this has been done at a time when infrastructure has not kept up with the amount of migrants that we've seen.

That's why people are going bananas about this, because the volume of people does not match the infrastructure and the housing that has been needed—1.5 million people and 500,000 new homes. You don't need to be a mathematician or an economist to work out what's gone wrong there. That is why we have pledged that we would link migration to housing completions. If we want to maintain confidence in the migration system, we need to have housing for new Australians as well as the people who are already here. The most important duty of a government is to protect its people. What the government has failed to do is to protect the people who've been here for generations. They've been done over by this migration policy, which is not in keeping with the orderly systems that we've had in the past.

That's why there's been a loss of confidence, because, quite simply, the government is incompetent. It has let in too many people. It's been desperate for economic growth. It can't get growth out of the economy, so it's got to bring people in. The only thing that keeps GDP going in this country is migration, because their productivity is shot. The economy is cactus. Look at insolvencies. Look at the death of small business. Look at the growth of the public sector under this government. The public sector and migration are keeping this economy afloat in an anaemic way. But this is a per capita recession. It may not be a technical recession, but it's a real recession for most people. That's why people are going bananas. That's why people have lost confidence in this government's ability to manage this important issue.

I make the point that we need to bring down migration. We need to have fewer temporary migrants. We need to get more skilled migrants. We need to change the mix, and we need to lower the number of people coming in through the system and the people who are already here. At the end of the day, if we want to maintain our ethos as a proud migration nation—a country that's been able to subsume people from all over the world and been a safe haven for refugees and people who have built lives in, contribute to and love this country—then we need to maintain the community's confidence that the migration system is working for Australia, not working for others. The fear in the community is that the migration system is out of control, doesn't work for the punters and doesn't work for the people. And I have all the confidence that the people have it right, which is why we need to link migration to housing completions and get more skilled people in as we reduce temporary migration.

David Shoebridge

What I never hear in this debate is how anyone is going to materially improve the lives of people here. They phrase this debate about housing, about wages—never do they put forward how they're going to take on the one per cent and make people's lives better. The parties in here—Labor, One Nation and those of the coalition—and their ultrawealthy backers have targeted migrants repeatedly over decades of underinvestment in housing, public health and core services because migrants are an easy distraction for them and their billionaire backers. Migrants don't tend to be massively rich. Some are, but they don't tend to be. Many of them don't vote, and they're just the perfect scapegoat for a political class that refuses to take on the ultrawealthy, so One Nation and Labor are more than happy to gang up on them. We'll see the same thing tomorrow when Minister Burke stands up, with One Nation grinning over his shoulder. We know it's all dog whistling.

We've actually lived through an experience of net negative migration. During COVID, Australia's population went down—and Australia's house prices rose by more than 20 per cent in just 18 months. Everyone forgets that because it disturbs the narrative. Let's be clear. Your mum's friend from the Philippines who's an emergency nurse at the local hospital had no say over how much of the federal budget went into public housing or health. The family down on the corner who run the grocery shop aren't in cabinet when the government decides to cut NDIS funding. Your friend's partner who moved from Canada to get married wasn't on the phone to Albanese telling him to fast-track AI. The bloke in your local football team who fled war in Iraq wasn't in charge of setting interest rates.

Leah Blyth

Sorry, Senator Shoebridge; we have a point of order from Senator Polley.

Helen Polley

The senator should be referring to people in the other place by their correct titles.

Leah Blyth

Thank you, Senator Polley. Senator Shoebridge, could you please refer to those in the other place by their titles.

David Shoebridge

Here's a secret: we all have a lot more in common with someone who came to Australia to be united with their loved ones or flee an oppressive government than we do with the ultrawealthy and the one per cent. We won't fall for it. Australia is proudly multicultural, but it does need to be fairer, and that requires solidarity.

Helen Polley

Labor is proud of the fact that we've strengthened immigration to this country. We understand and we value what immigrants have, decade after decade, brought to our country and to our cities, our towns and our communities. Those opposite, particularly those of One Nation, are opposed to immigration, and they're opposed, like us—we are opposed to people who rort the immigration system. But we're not racist. We know that there's a history that is well recorded in this country of those who are racist and have been for decades. Almost everyone who comes to Australia respects our country, is a welcome guest and abides by our laws and our visa system. But we have no time for those who come here, break our laws and try to game our migration system in ways it wasn't intended to operate. That's why we are building a migration system that delivers skills that we need while ending exploitation and rorts. The Albanese Labor government has been focused on running a sustainable migration program responsibly and in the national interest, not based on stunts and posturing, like the coalition and One Nation.

Nurses, aged-care workers, teachers and tradies all play a crucial role in Australia's society through skilled migration. That's the reality of what's happening in Australia. We've also invested $85 million to better enable migrants to have their skills recognised here more quickly so they can get working in our construction sector and other trades areas. This follows our work to fast-track skills assessments for migrants, which so far has made more than 20,000 migrants available to work in construction and trades.

Since we came to government we've been cleaning up the mess left by those opposite. When Labor came to government, net overseas migration was soaring. Since then we have made sensible, considered changes that have brought down net overseas migration by 45 per cent from the postpandemic peak—which those from One Nation refuse to acknowledge, because they are the almighty who know everything but actually have no real idea. That's why they will never, ever govern in this country.

I want to talk about One Nation's plan, as they say, to have a well-managed, targeted migration program. Rather than lifting living standards and productivity, One Nation's plan will mean we won't have the workers we need to build our homes, look after our elderly, care for the sick and provide other services that Australians rely on. One Nation's migration numbers aren't worth the paper they're printed on. They say they'd cap net overseas migration at 130,000, but they haven't included backpackers in that figure, so they're already off by 50,000. They say they'd be able to keep the exact number of doctors, nurses and construction workers coming to Australia, which shows they know nothing about migration except their prejudice, because these workers won't come if they can't bring their family; they won't come if they can't bring their partners, their husbands, their wives and their children.

They say they'll deport anyone without a visa. But when you ask them, 'How are you going to achieve this?' the member for New England says, 'People will just pop up to be deported.' One Nation's so-called migration policy is nothing more than a political stunt that makes a mockery of the Australian people's legitimate concerns about migration levels and the availability of housing services and infrastructure. They are so ignorant to the benefits that migrants have brought to this country.

The coalition, on the other hand—we had Senator Bragg making his contribution—are over this way one day, over that way the other. We know they've been led around by One Nation. And I understand why the coalition do that, because there are Liberals and certainly a lot of Nationals who are going to lose their seats. But the Australian people are not fools. They know Senator Hanson— (Time expired)

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