Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

For decades, parliamentarians on both sides of this House prided themselves on Australian multiculturalism, contrasting ourselves with systems such as the German guest worker process, where people had no rights for 30, 40 or 50 years.

The first nail in the coffin for this policy was under the Howard government, when we had a massive reduction in the number of people allowed to enter this country as parents. There was then a deal reached with the Democrats—

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