Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The inquiry into migration and multiculturalism in Australia has been exhaustive. We have been working on this for a very long period—I think close to two years, so pretty much the length of this parliament. Others before me have spoken about the number of hearings we have had around Australia. I will perhaps start where others have finished by thanking the secretariat for their diligent work during this process and the other members of the committee for their high level of cooperation.

It was one of those inquiries that had stories within it that touched all of us. There were programs out there that we were all pleased to see and there were failures and the consequences of failures that we collectively deplored.

There were 32 recommendations in total, and we have managed after quite some time to come to a unanimous decision to endorse all of the recommendations. I think that is a good thing and a good message to the people of Australia. There are some additional comments by the coalition members who are concerned that some of the recommendations, if they were adopted, may lead to an immediate lift in government expenditure. It is not the time or place in this debate to talk about Australia's economic state and why we are in that position and how we might get out of it. Suffice to say, we were not prepared to support recommendations in the short term that may lead to an increase in government expenditure.

Migration and the movement of people around the world is a fact. People can say they are not in favour of migration or they do not want people coming to our country but, in fact, the kind of world we live in, and the connectivity, the movement of people around the planet, including Australians—at any given time, there is anywhere up to a million Australians overseas—means we are integrated in a world where people move at the drop of a hat. We are part of that, and countries that deny that kind of movement to their people are by far the poorer for it. If you look around the world, it is not hard before you find countries that put up barriers at their borders and, generally speaking, they have very poor democratic outcomes. These countries are nearly always poor and far the poorer for the experience. We stand to gain from those that open up to the rest of world at every level, and those countries that do that are the same.

Call it what you like. You can call that multiculturalism, which is what we do here in Australia, but there are any other number of names for being welcoming to our friends and neighbours around the world. Some would just call it plain good manners. Some would call it actions within your own interests, but in Australia we call it multiculturalism.

It was pointed out to us in the inquiry that the type of multiculturalism that we have adopted in Australia is quite different to many other countries, and some of the difficulties perhaps in Europe at the moment were highlighted. There have been some high-level rejections of multiculturalism within Australia. We recently met with a German member of parliament and were talking about the arrangements in Germany. They have had large groups come to Germany on working visas and there they are there generations later and they are still a people apart rather than being a people of Germany.

That is not the method we used in Australia. We have said to the people of the world: 'If you come to Australia and meet our migration arrangements, we'll welcome you but we want you to be Australians.' Consequently, people have come here from other countries, including ancestrally—I would say everyone of us in this room has come to call Australia home, not other places. We see this as our first point of allegiance. That is a distinct difference in the way we do things in Australia.

By far the highest profile subject within this inquiry is the fact that we got 513 submissions. And in my estimation—and I read through them—roughly 400, or a little less, you would have to say were anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic in tone. Some were thoughtfully so, let me say; some were constructive arguments and put forward in moderation. Others were not, it must be said. That is a cause for concern within itself. Throughout the inquiry I said continually to the other members and senators that we just could not make out that these submissions were not happening, and that we had to address it in the report. I believe we have done so. It is a concern that that number of Australians are worried about Australia's current direction and future direction. But, as I said in my opening remarks, to think that you can just hold back the tide, that you can disassociate yourself from something that you do not particularly like, is foolish.

We actually have to concentrate on what we do to make sure that we achieve a good outcome for those people who are feeling unsettled by the immigration patterns, for those who have emigrated here and for the population as a whole, to make sure that we have one community—one community that works together. I believe that we have addressed that within the recommendations.

It was also significant that the committee focused on improving English language services and felt that perhaps what we are doing at the moment is not totally adequate, because English language is the tool that unlocks the best of Australia for those who choose to come here. English language proficiency is also an expression, to those in our community who feel uneasy about those people who might be living in our midst, of the newcomers wanting to be part of Australia. So English proficiency is a very important thing for our newcomers to achieve. We should, as a nation, make sure the services are available so they can get those skills and, with those skills, come to better understand the responsibilities of being an Australian—that it is not all one way, and it is not just Australia looking after you; it is about you, the person coming to Australia, adopting Australia as your home and saying, 'This is where I want to be, and I want to be part of your cultural structure.' So English language is an important tool, and I hope that we can do better in that area in the future.

We also recommended that an independent institute be established to provide better information, to governments in particular but to all people in the community, about how best to structure those services and address those hot spots. We should make sure that the people who have come here are welcome, feel welcome, want to be culturally part of Australia and, as I said, accept the responsibilities that come with being a citizen of Australia—to endorse our institutions and the way that we wish to operate in Australia, and not to oppose what we consider to be Australian. By and large the report is good. It is certainly large! And I have to endorse the comments of those people who said that it was a good committee to work on, and I thank the chair for her diligence. I hope that the report will provide some kind of guidance for future governments in Australia to deal with these issues.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 17:14 to 18:30

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