Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

This motion before the House is once again seeking to change the order of the day to bring forward this government's shameful changes to skilled migration that amount to nothing more than an attack on skilled migrants. It would seem that the events of last night mean that they may have changed the leader but they have not changed their policies. It is another Labor leader and it is another policy failure that this government is trying to force onto this parliament.

This parliament has sought to have this matter inquired into, and that has been frustrated by those on that side of the House. This parliament has been seeking to ensure that this government just does not ram more union dominated agendas and legislation through this parliament. The unions were running the Labor Party yesterday and the unions are still running the Labor Party today, because this bill which the now Prime Minister expressed some months ago real concerns about, as many others did, is now back on the agenda. It is back on the agenda of this government. This agenda of policy failures continues under this Prime Minister—because they can change their leader but they cannot change their spots. They cannot change their connections to the union movement. The union movement is hard-wired into this government.

One has to ponder what deal was done with the union movement last night. What deal was done with the member for Maribyrnong, also known by those on his side of the House as the 'kingslayer', to ensure that this Prime Minister would be restored—this Prime Minister who did last night what he himself decried being done to him three years ago and who for the last three years has assiduously worked to get his revenge.

Last night clearly there was a deal done, and the unions still want their pound of flesh from this Prime Minister. This bill was listed as item 11, and the very first thing that this Prime Minister wants to do is to put the union's legislation first on his docket. The first thing that he wants to do in this place is to deal with this union-dominated bill. And this comes at the same time that in the other place what has just occurred is that the government has voted against the restoration of temporary protection visas.

We all know the government's total opposition to the Howard government border protection measures, and it would seem that this government under this Prime Minister is no different to the one under the member for Lalor that this Prime Minister has succeeded. They will continue to deny that Prime Minister Rudd, now the restored Prime Minister Rudd, stands by his decision to get rid of the proven measures of the Howard government. He stands by that decision, because the first thing they did in the Senate was to vote against temporary protection visas.

And the first thing they want to do in this House is to vote for the union-sponsored legislation to crack down on skilled migrants in this country. That is the agenda—nothing changes. You can change the Labor leaders but you cannot change their dedication and undying devotion to the union movement. Indeed, Mr Howes may well need to sell his house. This is a government that has sold out to the union movement more often than anyone in this place would care to nominate.

The reason that the government want to bring this bill on is that they know that they have failed on border protection like no other. What this bill was designed to do, under the guise of the former Prime Minister, was to deflect attention from the government's border failures which have resulted in the number of illegal arrivals to Australia amounting to over 45,000 people. When the Howard government left office the average rate of arrivals illegally by boat was two per month, the budget was $85 million a year, and there were four people in detention who had arrived illegally by boat. Under this government, regardless of who the Prime Minister is, the budget next year is purported to be $2,900 million a year, there are over 23,000 people who arrived illegally by boat who are in the system, and we now have arrivals of over 3,000 per month.

That is the record. So I am not surprised that this government would want to continue with the distraction of forcing on this parliament this legislation that seeks to hide their border failures. I can also understand why they particularly want to do it with their new Prime Minister. The new Prime Minister started the boats, and he cannot be trusted to stop the boats. That is the issue with this Prime Minister: he started the boats and he cannot stop them. I imagine that he will come in here with all sorts of new theories—

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