Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on an issue that certainly grieves me. I am aghast at the double standards of this Rudd Labor government, particularly the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, in relation to the differing principles applied to those wishing to reside in Australia. Let me set the scene. We have just witnessed the debacle of the Oceanic Viking, where 78 asylum seekers have been promised processing within four to 12 weeks when normally the average processing time for offshore asylum seekers is 52 weeks. Australia, led by our Prime Minister, has been held to ransom by economic opportunists, making a mockery of our so-called border security. Who are these people? Where do they really come from? And what do they really have to offer Australia?

The National Resource Sector Employment Taskforce met for the first time on November 16, 2009 and is charged with helping to secure up to 70,000 skilled workers required in the resource sector over the next decade. For Kevin Rudd to have initiated this taskforce, he must be aware of the economic resource boom that is ramping up in Australia, particularly in Western Australia. One of the first projects under consideration by the National Resource Sector Employment Taskforce is the Gorgon LNG project in my patch, my patch being the powerhouse of the nation—in this case, where 40 trillion cubic feet of gas will be tapped, creating a very conservative estimate of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Pluto gas field, with the first gas expected in late 2010, is creating up to 3,000 direct jobs during the construction stage and 300 during operation. The iron ore sector of WA employed 4,798 more people in 2008 than it did in 2007. And the gold sector in Western Australia was up by 726 personnel for the same period. In 2009, with the many burgeoning goldmines and the gold price at a record of US$1,100 per ounce, these figures are far more elevated.

The sectors mentioned are expected to continue rising, thus creating more and more demand for skilled labour. In fact, over the weekend it was reported that Pluto had suffered a potential $1 billion cost overrun. A shortage of labourers was cited as being among several factors that had contributed to the blow-out. A spokesman also confirmed that the company had fears about the availability of some trades during peak construction.

Here lies my grievance: the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has openly welcomed economic opportunists arriving on illegal boats about which we know nothing. Are they going to be able to contribute to this economic boom or are they, because of the devious process they use to into the country, going to be an economic burden to our society?

On the other hand, I have a story about a respectable community minded family who live in the city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Mr and Mrs Gerhardus Kemp and their lively cricket-playing, Aussie-lifestyle-loving boys came to Australia to help out with the economic boom. They answered the call to bring skills to our land—to sell up back home in South Africa and contribute to the Australian economy. Mr Kemp is a boilermaker with qualifications that date back 13 years. Mrs Kemp has been a qualified hairdresser, also for 13 years. They went through the right channels and were rewarded with a life in Australia—or so they thought.

Because the immigration department is in a state of disarray, it would appear that all available resources are being poured into the service of economic opportunists who have been arriving without restrictions since the changes made by the Rudd government. Now, Mr and Mrs Kemp might be sent back to a land where they have nothing. Mrs Kemp would be forced to remain in South Africa with the boys whilst Mr Kemp would need to work in Europe to support his family. Why? All because the immigration department took so long to process the family’s offshore visa application—over 12 months. By the time it was processed the laws had changed. Lost paperwork, the fact that they were unable to speak to a caseworker and numerous other monumental failures mean that this family, who are embedded into the local community, may have to uproot and relocate back to the land they left. They left only too willing to contribute to the building of the Australian economy.

Priority processing, effective as of 23 September 2009, gives the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship powers to consider and finalise visa applications in an order of priority that the minister considers appropriate. Mr Kemp applied for an offshore visa which, if the government had not bungled his application so severely, would have been granted prior to 23 September 2009. With the new processing arrangements, anyone whose application was previously lodged with the department and not yet finalised will fall under the new guidelines. Even after 23 September Mr Kemp may still have received the visa he initially applied for if his trade was on the critical skills list found on the Australian government Department of Immigration and Citizenship website.

The critical skills list has not been updated since March this year, even after all the reports by government and industry leaders that we have a resource boom around the corner and a severe lack of skilled workers to meet the demands that this boom will place on our country. The critical skills list contains the following occupations: anaesthetists, engineers, aircraft maintenance engineers, podiatrists, psychiatrists and even wall and floor tilers. In fact, 24 of the 40 critical skills listed were from the medical fraternity, which is fair, but there is no mention of welders, boilermakers, fitters and turners et cetera. Has the immigration department fallen prey to the hard-nosed militant and thuggish union leaders and their lead-swinging union members by removing the opportunity for Australia to broaden and enrich our workforce and culture, by creating an unfair playing field? It is a very good question to ask. Have the trades that will support the necessary infrastructure for our resources boom been deliberately left off our critical skills list because the unions fear they will fall victims to the many enthusiastic, hard-working potential immigrants wishing not only to contribute but to embrace and enjoy all the benefits that our great nation of Australia has to offer through doing an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay?

Here we are on the edge of a boom and we are not doing anything within the immigration department to acknowledge it. Rather, they seem more intent on giving a free leave pass to those we know nothing about, those who choose to sneak in. What of those who are left behind waiting in the queue, left to lament the fact that they did not have the money in their pockets to pay these horrendous dealers in human trade, the people smugglers? All I know is that we have right now a dilemma that will not be solved by somebody who throws the dictionary away and invents his own.

The immigration department as yet has not come up with a solution that will stop the people remaining in the queue being gazumped by individuals with money to spend on people smugglers. Perhaps I should tell my constituents to paddle out to sea, throw away all their identification, phone officials from aboard their dinghy with a claim of having a sick child on board, put an axe through the boat, be picked up at taxpayers’ expense and come to Australia the easy way, because those who come to Australia the easy way—even at risk of life and limb in a leaky boat, even at risk of sinking at sea unknown—have jumped the queue. There is no denying it. The activities of the UNHCR are well known in the refugee camps around the trouble spots of the world, yet these people with their resources—their cash and their family’s cash—choose to jump the queue. They choose to take this risk. They choose to go to sea in leaky boats and present themselves to Australian authorities so they will have an almost guaranteed opportunity for fast-tracked citizenship of this nation.

I do not believe this is humane, fair or equitable in any way. We need to get back to border protection that offers Australians the satisfaction of knowing that it is Australia—our departments and those administrators—who will choose who comes to Australia, not the people smugglers and those opportunists who happen to have money in their pocket and are able to jump the queue and leave those with a humanitarian need doing the right thing in the queue in those concentration camps. (Time expired)

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