Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member again for his question and for his interjection. The government’s commitment to our migration policy for the future is to deal with the future skill needs of our economy. The system of skills and the way in which it was structured through the immigration portfolio in the past does not meet the needs of the future; hence the decision concerning the 20,000, which has been publicised in the nation’s newspapers today. It is the right way forward, it is in the national interest and it is tailored to our real economic needs, and the government stands by that. Our border protection policy, as honourable members opposite would know, continues to deal with the practical challenges which we confront and which all previous governments have confronted since the 1970s.

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