Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise today to speak to the report of the inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Migration into multiculturalism in Australia. The committee accepted its terms of reference on 9 February 2011 from the then Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the Hon. Chris Bowen. It was asked to inquire into the economic, social and cultural impacts of migration and make recommendations to maximise the positive benefits of migration.

I was very pleased to take part not in all of the hearings but a large percentage of them. There were a huge number of submissions. Some 513 submissions were received, there were 22 supplementary submissions and 58 exhibits. The committee went all around Australia, in regional areas as well as in metropolitan areas, and conducted some 27 public hearings from 29 March 2011 to 8 June 2012.

The committee had very wide-ranging terms of reference. It was asked to look into the economic, social and cultural impacts of migration in Australia and: to make recommendations in three areas—multiculturalism, social inclusion and globalisation; to look at the federal government's social inclusion agenda; and to look at the wonderful diaspora we have been the recipients of in this country, particularly from Australia's relationship with Europe, the UK, the Middle East and our Asia-Pacific neighbours. Other areas that it looked at were settlement participation, particularly settlement programs and how they relate to new migrants, looking into participation and integration into broader Australian society, and also what the incentives are to promote long-term settlement and the greater economic benefits it provides to Australia as a whole.

We are a country of great migration, so we looked at the national productive capacity and how that wonderful sense of migration over a long period has helped to build and shape Australia as it is, the role of skilled migration and the role of government initiatives to also help migrant communities and establish business enterprises.

I place on record my appreciation to the chair, Ms Maria Vamvakinou, and the deputy chair, Louise Markus. I also want to thank the secretariat for their outstanding work and their diligence. It was a very long inquiry. The member for Hindmarsh is across from me, and he also contributed enormously, as did many other members of the committee of which I was very privileged to be a part.

Australia has a rich Indigenous culture that spans many thousands of years and, since Federation, Australia has relied on migration to enhance its international trade and investment flows and to diversify domestic industries and contribute to the overall national productive capacity of the state. Our migration policy has consistently been designed to address both long-term and short-term needs, particularly of the economy, by attracting prospective migrants who possess the skills relevant to Australia's economic demands.

Australia has always had an extensive family reunion, humanitarian and refugee migration program. For the last five years alone, Australia has received approximately 13,400 refugees annually. Since its introduction in the 1970s, Australia's policy of multiculturalism has shaped Australia's identity and supported our development as a multiracial, harmonious and very cohesive society. While the concept of multiculturalism has often been subject to debate and review over time, Australia's non-discriminatory migration system supports cultural diversity. We are a multicultural nation with a strong record of peaceful settlement of migrants from all parts of the world. I would not be standing here today if it were not for my Italian forebears who came here in the early 1940s.

Ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity has been a feature of Australian society from the beginning of British colonisation in the 18th century. Post-settlement migrants included Malays, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and Afghans, as well as the Irish, English, Scots and Germans. Prior to this, the Malaccans and Melanesians had traded and periodically co-located over centuries with Indigenous Australians in the Far North.

The end of World War II triggered huge migration to this country. At that time, my grandfather, my grandmother, my father and my mother migrated here. It is quite fitting that today we have the Migration Council of Australia having a wonderful dinner. I know that they will be featuring my family's story in one of their exhibits, along with the stories of many of the members here who come from a culturally and linguistically different background.

Since 1945 we have had seven million people from over 180 countries migrate to Australia. That is around one million migrants each decade since 1950. The Australian economy has increased sixfold over that time. Over the last decade, migrants from India, China, the Middle East and the African continent have featured and contributed their linguistic and religious diversity to Australia's culture.

In 2010, Australia was one of the world's top three culturally diverse nations: nearly 45 per cent of the population has a close overseas connection when Australians who have one or both parents born overseas are included. Today, over 260 languages are spoken in Australia by people of 270 different ancestries. Census data shows us that more than half of the recent arrivals since 2006 speak both another language and English either very well or well. This language diversity gives Australia a competitive edge in an increasingly transnational world. Despite this great cultural diversity, Australia remains a predominantly Christian and secular society with the largest minority religion being practised by roughly two per cent of the population.

I enjoyed the many submissions that were presented to the committee, particularly the ones that were presented in terms of what multicultural policy was. What has changed over the decades has not been the fact of Australia's population diversity, but the different policy frameworks that were developed by government to develop and interpret that diversity. DIAC's statement is that multiculturalism is:

… a coordinated long range response to migration patterns that have resulted in diverse people and cultures occupying the same locality, who share the aim of making a home for themselves and their families in a community within a safe, stable and cohesive nation. Over time the term has come to refer to: the demographic fact of cultural diversity; a set of policies, programs and services; as well as a concept that articulates normative ideals about society.

Australia's first national policy of multiculturalism followed the recommendations of the Galbally report in 1978. That report was a milestone in the Fraser government, a government that founded the SBS network that we know today and introduced many of the multicultural policies. That Fraser government initiative and that report about migrant services and programs had 14 key principles enunciated, that:

… all members of society are to have equal opportunity to realise their potential and have equal access to programs and services; every person to be able to retain his or her culture without prejudice or disadvantage and be encouraged to embrace and understand other cultures; migrants' needs are to be met by mainstream services, but special services and programs are to be in place at first; and there be full consultation with clients in design and operation of services with a focus on migrants becoming self-reliant quickly.

That policy represented a distinct shift away from the assimilation approach that dominated in the 1940s and 1950s. It was a new era and a new cultural policy, recognising that migrants could retain their cultural identity and successfully integrate with support over time.

In 2011-12, the total number of people that have had citizenship conferred on them in Australia was 95,776, which was up from 85,916 in 2010-11. Australia has one of the highest uptakes of citizenship anywhere in the OECD, with nearly 80 per cent of Australia's population becoming citizens.

With all of this work that was done in the past, there is always room for improvements and it is always good to be able to contribute to this particular inquiry. There are areas that the committee recommended needed more work. I fully support the fact that migrants should have access to English classes at every opportunity, and that our AMEP program should be flexible to allow for as many people as possible to learn English. It should be relevant, particularly in enabling many of our migrants to get jobs and have greater linkages to our Job Network providers. There were many submissions provided on skills recognition and the fact we need to do much, much better in that particular area to recognise the incredible skills that people bring—particularly people who have migrated to Australia—and how we need to recognise those skills so that people can work in the area that they have been trained for. There are many areas of federal policy that overlap state policy and it was important to ensure that we work with our state and local government authority to make sure that CALD communities are provided with assistance in every possible way, particularly in housing and in health and aged care. We made a number of recommendations that more work needed to be done in CALD communities, that it needed to be a whole-of-government approach and that the department should advise and integrate with its social inclusion agenda and interact closely with the Multicultural Council in its roles of providing research and advice on multicultural affairs and policy and strengthening that access and equity. It is really important that we have a research unit. There was no doubt that much of our immigration policy has been difficult to formulate because we have not had that independent statutory body that collects information about regional migration and other aspects of the immigration program.

All of the committee was in unanimous support that that should be set up to provide accurate and up-to-date data in order to identify trends in migration and multiculturalism and to measure and address CALD-related disadvantage. We need to know how our program is doing. We need to know whether our refugee and humanitarian settlement, particularly in regional areas, is working well. We need to know if employment opportunities have been realised and if people have had good and positive settlement outcomes. It is very important that we establish such an institute and have that up-to-date information. I enjoyed listening to a range of submissions and from a range of multicultural groups providing input particularly on the job network and how the JSA can be made much more outcome-focused in this area. A lot of work needs to done in the area of refugee and humanitarian settlement. It is still a sad fact that after five years there are many original humanitarian program settlers who are still without a job, and I think we need to make sure that we have greater integration of those programs.

All in all, the report was very intensive. It took many submissions, and I want to commend again the secretariat for their fine work. I want to thank everyone who took part. I have taken part in a number of reports in this place and I have to say that this report is based on great cooperation between members of all parties. I commend the report and I look forward to the government taking up many of the recommendations.

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