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

I am seeking to explain to the member for Kennedy that our policies, that have been focused predominantly on skilled migration to this country, have produced social cohesion in this country and are the reason we have the most integrated set of migration outcomes. We want to see that continue and that is why this government has ensured that we have maintained the level of skilled migration of the total intake at over two-thirds. I remind members of the House that under the Keating government the proportion of the immigration intake was less than 30 per cent skilled. That was changed under the Howard government and was raised to almost 70 per cent. To the credit of those opposite, they continued it at those levels and we had some bipartisanship for a time on skilled migration when the member for McMahon was the minister for immigration.

Members opposite should know that it will be the policy of this government to pursue immigration without discrimination on the grounds of religion or ethnicity or anything of that nature. We are looking for people to come and join this team—people who are going to contribute to this country. That is the success and history of immigration in this country. That is what will produce the cohesion and that is why I join with the member in condemning the sorts of attacks that he has just referred to in his question. They are an abomination to the way of life that we stand for in this country, and the immigration policies that we have crafted over generations will be continued by this government because they are producing economic and social dividends in this country and they are designed to produce unity, not division.

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