Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Migration has been good for Australia. Australia has been good to migrants. It works both ways. I rise to speak tonight on this Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011 as a member for an electorate which has many migrants. These people have come to the Riverina in different waves, in different circumstances and from vastly different places and backgrounds, but all share a common bond: all came to these shores, our shores, seeking a new start and willing to make the most of the opportunity afforded by this country to build a better life for their families and themselves. Migrants helped enormously in the development of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, which is this year proudly commemorating its centenary—100 years since the official turning on of the water took place at Yanco on 13 July 1912.

Certainly, Griffith could be considered the cradle of multiculturalism as a city made up of so many different nationalities. It is no wonder the people of that regional city and indeed the entire MIA get so riled up when this government threatens to undermine future water availability and thereby the future of this great food bowl. These people have sacrificed much to come to this country, to be sent somewhere no-one else wanted to go and turn an arid plain that was thought worthless into a land, a patch, of plentiful produce. Griffith is as culturally diverse a regional city as you will find anywhere in Australia. Wagga Wagga took many Vietnamese refugees during the 1970s crisis. Many of them were settled in a suburb to the west of the city called San Isidore, and the local Roman Catholic Church in particular helped these people find their feet in their new home. Some still live and work in Wagga Wagga and contribute greatly in many ways to the local community, their community. They came by boat, admittedly, but they were able to obtain Australian citizenship. There are right means and methods to obtain Australian citizenship and there are wrong ones.

Over the past four years, we have unfortunately experienced an upsurge in the number of illegal boat arrivals, which was brought about by the relaxing—indeed, axing—of the policies which worked under the previous coalition government led by John Howard. Since November 2007, when the Howard government border protection policies were dismantled, 22,518 illegal arrivals have made their way here on 386 boats. That is as of now. The people and the boats keep coming. Since Julia Gillard, a modern day Helen of Troy of sorts—the face that launched a thousand ships—took over as Prime Minister from Kevin Rudd on 24 June 2010—

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