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

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. The rate of our population growth is a key factor, along with our productivity and labour force participation, which drives the engine of our economy. It is very, very important that we have the right level of net overseas migration that contributes towards our population growth.

Our rate of net overseas migration each year is in the order of around 240,000 per year. Now that nets off those coming in and those going out who have been here for a period of 12 months or over 12 months in a 16-month period. The net overseas migration figures are of that order.

It is important, as we construct the composition of that intake into Australia every year, that we have a very keen focus on what the economic participation opportunities are for those who are coming. That is why this government has followed the policy of ensuring that we focus on skilled migration to this country. That is a policy we have continued that was put in place by the previous government, but it was not always that way under Labor. Under the Keating government the percentage of permanent migration for people with skills was less than 30 per cent, and it was the member for Berowra, when he was the minister for immigration, who built that up to almost 70 per cent.

I commend those opposite, particularly the shadow Treasurer, who, when he was immigration minister, had a very bipartisan position when it came to skilled migration. But I cannot say that for the others who occupied the office, who decided to make skilled migration in this country an issue of partisan divide—by slamming against temporary skilled migration workers coming into this country and joining union scare campaigns against those who come to this country and make a contribution from day one—every single day. They come, they pay taxes and they come to make a contribution.

But I take the member for Kennedy's point—that is, we need to have a sustainable rate of population growth that does not overburden the economy and, at the same time, supports the economy's continued growth. That is something this government takes very seriously. We will have an intake that focuses on quality, not quantity. And that quality is those who can come to this country and make a contribution; those who come to have a go and come to this country to be able to make a contribution in a way that enables their families and all of them to participate in this great country and not separate themselves out. That is the basis of our immigration policy, and we will continue to drive it on that basis.

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