Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I found the previous contribution a little amusing. The member talked about Labor 'now listening'. I guess Labor has done nothing before on this matter; it is nice to think they are now starting to listen. And they are going to release a policy some time soon. The fact is that for many years, the first years of most of these policies—seasonal workforce visas, overseas work available to students and so on—Labor was in power, and they did very little. In fact, the numbers blossomed and bloomed under Labor's regime. They did little when there was exploitation. It was not the rampant and horrific massive exploitation referred to by the member for Bendigo in her motion, but there was some. Unfortunately, with human nature involved, there is always the odd person who will try to exploit others in an effort to make financial gain.

But let me talk about what this government has done, because we know that the reputation of Australia as a destination for employment is very important. In my area of Murray we are dependent on international backpackers and overseas workers who are on 457 visas. We depend on them to work in our piggeries, in our abattoirs, in horticulture, and in fruit picking, pruning and packing. We are unfortunately an area that has high youth unemployment—over 27 per cent—but at the same time we are dependent on these international workers.

So there is no way we are going to see the reputation of Australia trashed because unions or the Labor Party think it resonates among some of their voters. We want to make sure the realities are presented. Already this year there has been a 10.2 per cent decline in overseas visa applications from holiday-makers, and that is a disappointment to us. We have to make sure that the reputation of Australia is not trashed by the opposition, but that the realities are presented.

Let me remind everybody that, in 2014, when we were in government, an independent review into the integrity of the subclass 457 visa program was commissioned by this government, and the government's response to this review was released in March 2014. The review did not find that there was widespread misuse of the program. It found that there were some loopholes which could be exploited by unscrupulous employers, and so we immediately moved to close those loopholes with the Migration Amendment (Charging for a Migration Outcome) Bill 2015. That was to ensure that no-one could receive payment for facilitating a visa, and we responded to the concerns by amending the Migration Act 1958 to make it unlawful for a person to receive a benefit in return for a migration outcome. The bill passed the Australian parliament on Wednesday, 25 November 2015.

Why didn't Labor do something about that? Not a squeak; not a move. It was up to the coalition to make those amendments.

Under the coalition we have new criminal penalties of up to two years' imprisonment or penalties of up to $324,000 for each instance applying to people engaging in this type of unlawful conduct, including sponsors of visa applicants, visa holders or third parties. Labor did nothing about that. They talk about, in their future policy, increasing penalties. Well, good for them—but have a look at what we have already done.

As our legislation shows, if there is a problem we respond to it. Unfortunately, as I repeat, Labor presided over any problems in the system for six years but did nothing. It reminds me a little bit of the White Australia policy which was a hallmark of the new federation, unfortunately, in this country in 1901. That was all about the Labor Party of the day trying to make sure that any migrant labour coming into our country was only to look like them—white, of Anglo-Irish extraction. We are over that. We are over the xenophobic Labor policy moves of the Labor government. We want to welcome into this country any worker who fits the visa qualifications and categories. We depend on that labour in horticulture and agriculture.

I also want to commend this government for very recently introducing the new dairy industry labour agreement. That is very, very important for dairying. It will be closely scrutinised, in all cases, looking for the skills that are needed in this country and also testing the market first. This is what our coalition always does.

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