Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to make a contribution to the debate on the Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2010-2011 and the Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2010-2011. In the same vein as the previous two speakers, the issues I wish to raise are on migration. I spoke earlier in the House today and pointed out how we are dealing with probably the most disorganised and bad government since the Whitlam era. I am going to point out to this House today some examples of why this government is in such a mess. Not only is it in a mess financially and economically on things like the levy but it is in a mess on migration issues. As representatives, as we all are in this place, trying to represent people in our electorates and trying to do our job to help good, decent people wanting to come to this country, we are being thwarted by the dysfunctional, shambolic nature of the Labor Party’s reorganisation of their migration system. For example, since 2010 some of the changes in the ASCO codes to ANZSCO classifications mean a retrospective view of people that have been here on 457 visas, stranded here because of the retrospective changes made on issues such as eligibility of occupations, the IELTS tests on English and not taking into account the nuances of occupations et cetera. As a result we have a whole lot of people here with families, people who have sold up overseas to come here to try and make a contribution to Australia as skilled migrants, and they have been stranded because of the Labor Party’s retrospective application since they have been in government. They are hanging on by their fingernails now and they are still making a mess of their migration system.

One of the clearly and patently crazy and disturbing cases is a case in my electorate, where Vince and Teresa Borrello own a cheese company called Borrello Cheese, a very successful business set up by a couple of Italian migrants who have come here and set up a cheese business. It is a boutique cheese business and they sell bocconcinis around Perth to just about every outlet, because bocconcini is the flavour of the day along with other specialty cheeses. Vince was self-taught and he started up his cheese factory just off Thomas Road in Oakford in my electorate. He and his wife and his family are involved. The business has grown to such an extent that—how dare they?—they try to bring across a qualified and skilled cheese maker from Italy.

Mr Pelati, who they have tried to bring to Australia, is not only qualified but someone who can help and mentor those who are all self-taught in Vince’s cheese factory. That is all fine. He ticks all the boxes. If you think that this is a partisan thing, anyone on the other side, Vince is trying to get help from a former Labor member of parliament, Nick Catania, who is now the mayor of Vincent in Western Australia. Vince is throwing his hands up in the air about the application of the migration rules in this case with Mr Pelati. His qualifications are right and his English is right, not to mention the fact that he is mentoring and training those on the ground. I got contacted by Vince. Vince is an enthusiastic and energetic sort of person. He started yelling down the phone at me one day about the fact that Mr Pelati was going to be thrown out of the country. Why? He had ticked all the boxes, as I said, to do with qualifications. They had advertised throughout Australia for a cheese maker before they went to the huge expense of bringing someone and their family here. They had to pay all the transport, medical and set-up costs for him because he came on a 457 visa. Then they were told that he was going to be thrown out of the country.

When I got involved, the young case officer—I will not mention his name because he was probably only following instructions—had hit him with this letter saying, ‘Unless you deal with this, this man is going to be thrown out.’ So I went to a senior case officer, Mr Robert Hardy, who is very good. Robert drilled down very quickly to what the problem was. Everything was fine except for one thing. The problem was that the Labor Party, because of their exposure to the unions, do not like skilled workers coming here on 457 visas, so they make it as tough as they can.

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