Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I will deal with both questions. I appreciate the spirit in which the honourable member for Sturt has asked his question with respect to the skilled migration program generally, but specifically the student migration program and its application in South Australia. With respect to the latter part of the question I can assure him that I will refer his comments and those figures that he presented to the minister and request a detailed response to the specifics. I note it was a change that was made under the former government, but I appreciate the spirit in which the question has been raised.

If I could say briefly with respect to the skilled migration program: it is a priority. All the evidence indicates that Australia is suffering from a skilled labour shortage, which is going to become increasingly acute. That is why the Rudd government has expanded the skilled migration program by an extra 31,000 skilled migrants in 2008-09. This is in fact a 30 per cent increase on the previous year. Overall, the skilled migration program will make up 133,500 places, which totals 190,300 for 2008-09. In addition we will increase the family stream by 6,500 places, which includes an allocation for 4,000 places for parent visas. That is probably a convenient place to break in to answer the question from the member for Moreton. That allocation of an additional 4,000 places through the parent visa program will be welcomed in the community, for humanitarian reasons, to promote family reunions. But the ability for a skilled migrant to bring their parents out is also an incentive. We believe that it will actually be an attraction to what we need to happen—that is, to attract skilled workers to Australia.

The budget provides for 1,000 additional places for the non-contributory parent visa and 3,500 places for the contributory parent visa. These increases will come into effect on 1 July this year. The non-contributory places have increased now to 2,000 places, which is a 100 per cent increase. The contributory parent visa places are up by 85 per cent from 3,500 to 6,500. These increases are expected to cut waiting periods by 15 per cent in some categories. If we had failed to address that issue, it was potentially the case that some Australian families in the non-contributory category would have been waiting for more than 15 years before they could be reunited with their parents. Obviously, the simple ageing process means that at the end of the day that may well have been thwarted. I know in my area, which is quite an extensively multicultural area, that where parents are able to be reunited with their children—in this case they will be skilled and in the workforce—it makes a tremendous difference to the respective family units and indeed their grandchildren. I believe that the community frequently obtains, particularly with close-knit migrant families, as they generally tend to be, a tremendous value in terms of the assistance those parents provide in caring for their grandchildren. So these increases will restore some balance to the structure of Australia’s migration program and will reduce the time it takes families to be reunited with their parents. The policy recognises the desire of many Australian citizens and residents to be reunited with their parents, and the social benefits which the honourable member has outlined and which I have noted in reply.

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