Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Migration Amendment (Border Integrity) Bill 2006 is important legislation. It adds another layer of protection for the Australian community. What is more, it sets out to provide convenience so as to ensure that the Australian people who have a good reputation can get back into Australia with a reduced amount of inconvenience. The member for Watson spent quite a lot of time talking about the administration of the new Customs software. It is universally recognised that that particular process left much to be desired. There were reasons for that. I would expect that we would not implement SmartGate, as it has been termed—and it is part of this legislation—on a national level, as the Customs arrangements were virtually obliged to be. We will probably have the opportunity to do so on an incremental basis. Furthermore, this is a choice that people will make. Many will retain their own passports and present to an immigration officer in the way in which they are accustomed. The phase in and the testing of this new software will thus be a lot easier.

I recently was in the company of a large number of English people who were travelling around Australia on a cruise vessel. As they left Singapore, Australian immigration agents boarded the vessel and did face-to-face checks on them as they were travelling towards Australia. One might think that people would be rather annoyed by that process. They were so happy to think that such a process existed and each and every one whom I happened to meet said, ‘I wish it was like this in our country.’ They wished there was someone checking the people who turn up in the United Kingdom from all over the place. It appears nobody knows they are there. As good citizens these people were pretty angry about that in their own country.

So there is worldwide support amongst the democracies for strong and properly administered border protection. I think there are times, when it comes to personal identification, when it is harder to corrupt a computer chip, which holds a lot of personal details and will be applicable in the SmartGate system, than it is to change a photograph on a passport and say you are still the same person but you look different, even though the photo looks like you.

So all of these things will improve border protection and at the same time improve the speed with which Australian citizens in particular can re-enter the country. As other nations may or may not pick up this particular technology, I guess we will see other people coming to Australia on the same arrangements. But we do go through border protection. I think our workers in Immigration and Customs do a great job. We experience that personally from time to time. This will make their task somewhat simpler.

The other amendment relates to some changes to the arrangements where special visas are granted to crew members of ships. The administration of these is an important factor when one considers the growth in the cruise tourist industry and the number of people who consequently work on those vessels. To the extent that they can get ashore they represent tourists the same as passengers. It is essential we have a sensible arrangement there. But there may be suspicions about an individual already in possession of one of these special visas that they might be deserting, which would be a common problem. Otherwise, there may be information available at the last minute but their special visa could not be cancelled until midnight. That is of course archaic and this new legislation makes it appropriate for the minister to declare the cancellation of that visa at any time, but they cannot cancel it retrospectively. In other words, they must only cancel it at a time prospective from the time of them signing the document. That is worth while.

I welcome the fact that the Australian Labor Party for a change are actually going to support a bit of border protection. I had a bit of discussion with their previous leader on this matter. I could not understand why he had voted against some other steps to improve our border protection. That became a matter of some public interest. But I am of the view that this time the House is combined on this. I think the member for Watson’s concerns are unwarranted. This is not the same requirement of administrative need as applied to Customs—more particularly, implementing it just before Christmas. I am sure that our immigration authorities will be able to make good use out of these new arrangements, I think SmartGate is a good idea and it will add to our border protection. I support the bill.

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