Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to speak about the Governor-General's address. I will outline some of the factors that I think are important following the last election. I want to take up the member for Blair on his rugby league parlance and say: it is the difference between Benny Elias missing a field goal in 1989 to hand the grand final to the Raiders and Johnathan Thurston kicking a field goal to win it for the Cowboys. It can make all the difference, that one point and that one goal!

It will be this year—I know I will have the member for Solomon's support—that the Parramatta Eels' Corey Norman will kick that field goal to win that grand final in 2017. I am looking forward to seeing that. And I know the Eels have a big part in the Northern Territory these days.

I want, of course, to express my thanks to the people of Mitchell, my electorate, who have now re-elected me four times. Amelia, Jack, Lachlan and I are so grateful to our community for the support that the community give me, as their representative, to take up the causes that matter to them here in the federal parliament. We have a great area and a great community. It is a go-ahead area of Sydney. Recent data has just shown that, of all the regions in Sydney, there are three that make up a quarter of Australia's GDP, and the hills district in the electorate of Mitchell is a strong part of all the economic growth that is driving some great results in this nation. And, while we want to see growth in all the regions and to see it spread further, the hills district is a powerhouse of economic activity and growth.

I pay tribute to the businesses of my electorate, the small and medium Australian companies—so many thousands of them—who are employing people, taking risks and creating jobs. I also pay tribute to the entrepreneurial people of my electorate who work from home. I have one of the highest proportions of mums working from home of anywhere in the country. These are people who want to work, who want to earn a living, who are doing their best for their families and their lives, and I thank them for their great support. A great privilege it is to continue to take up their causes here in parliament.

I was pleased to be able to deliver a headspace facility for our youth. Youth mental health is one of the biggest challenges faced in one of the highest family areas in the country, and I will continue to focus on it, as a representative down here, to make sure that that headspace service is well targeted towards ensuring young people get the services they need to ensure that we have less of youth suicide and fewer concerns from mental health issues dominating young people in the north-west of Sydney.

I also want to commend the state government for the $10 billion rail line that is now approaching a completion date in the next few years. It is a $10-billion infrastructure project that will enhance and further encourage the economy of my community, and it is fantastic to see a Liberal state government, backed up by a Liberal federal government, delivering an important piece of public transport infrastructure—perhaps the most important piece of urban transport infrastructure in this country's history. It will have the second longest rail tunnel in the southern hemisphere, and one of the longest rail tunnels in the world, under Sydney. It is on time. It is under budget. And it is an example of competent Liberal government delivering infrastructure for the benefit of Sydney.

We have seen the Turnbull government announce and bring forward the Western Sydney airport as well—one of the most vital decisions that the federal government has taken for Western Sydney in the last 30 or 40 years. It is to the shame of Labor members opposite that they continue to oppose what is a real economic driver of prosperity and hope, and, importantly, of utility to the communities and residents across Western Sydney. We know that the public are overwhelmingly behind the Western Sydney airport. We know that they are overwhelmingly behind the Turnbull government's approach, which is to build much of the infrastructure—the connecting roads; the necessary links—up-front. And they are obviously looking forward to the zoning and other opportunities that will come from a commercial hub, with real jobs, from an airport, with a real future for the young people there. And it will be of great utility to people in Western Sydney who will be able to get on a plane from Western Sydney, when this airport is operational, and leave for a domestic or an international destination. So we are going to continue to pursue the Western Sydney airport, because it is a real driver of jobs. It is a real driver of hope. It is a real driver of economic and other prosperity for people in Western Sydney.

I say to Labor members opposite—some of whom are new to this House: get on board with the government about this. Your spokesperson, the member for Grayndler, is clear that the Labor Party's position is to support the Western Sydney Airport. It should not be the case that Labor members in Western Sydney depart from the member for Grayndler's strong support and the Leader of the Opposition's strong support for the Western Sydney Airport. It is not good enough to say that you oppose it while in your local communities but support it when here in Canberra. Be honest with the people, get on board, acknowledge that it is going to drive those jobs, that economic future and that transportation future in a way that none of the other proposals for Western Sydney will do. So I say to my Labor colleagues in Western Sydney: now is the time to get behind it—not to support these councils opposing it—and realise that the Turnbull government is delivering for the people of Western Sydney.

I also want to thank the Prime Minister for the opportunity to serve, since the election, as the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Similar to the member for Blair, it is a great privilege to have joined this portfolio, having a migrant background. My mother was born in Greece, and I am a second-generation person who has come through to become responsible for migration to and from and Australia. I think that is the story of Australia. People come here, their families work hard, they make good and they are integrated successfully into Australia almost seamlessly. In fact, Australia takes more people from more places around the world and integrates them into our great country in a seamless way. We should never lose sight of the fact that we are one of the best and most successful nations in integrating large volumes of migrants relative to our population seamlessly into our community. It is something that we all must take pride in.

But that, of course, does not mean that we do not have to be cognisant of the fact that immigration relies on public confidence. It relies on the fact that we have tight and secure borders. One of the greatest failings of Labor has been to unravel borders and undermine the public's confidence—the essential individual confidence—in the ability of the government to control the borders and to control migration. When we came to office in 2013, we restored public confidence in immigration and the migration program by ensuring that we have strong and secure borders.

It was good to hear the member for Blair get up to today and adopt entirely the coalition's position on strong border protection, even though, amongst the ranks of Labor members opposite, there are still people who violently oppose the strong border regime that the coalition has been able to put in place. We make no apologies for stopping the boats and for putting in place a regime that will ensure that we do not have the insidious people-smuggling trade resume, and ensure that we deal with the immigration challenges that this nation faces in a controlled way and in a way that will retain the support and the essential confidence of the public. So I want to say to the member for Blair: it is also time to get on board. He says that we are not engaged in any deals in relation to third-party resettlements. We have perhaps the most important development, since the legacy of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era in terms of boat people, on the table at the moment, and that is a resettlement arrangement with the United States. He brushes over it, but the member for Blair knows and the Labor Party know that this is a significant achievement that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration have developed to see refugees return to the United States—recognising that we are unable to and we will not take them here in Australia at any point, so that we do not see people-smuggling resume. So I want to say to the member for Blair that it is important that he speaks publicly about his support for the deal with the United States. It is again essential for public confidence.

The Rudd government, in haste and in desperation, set up the offshore processing centres as a last resort due to the mess that they had created. It is our government that has sorted out that mess and has made sure that they are able to function properly. We have closed 17 detention centres since that time. I repeat: 17 detention centres have been closed. We have had no boats arrive and we have restored public confidence in our immigration system. So I want to commend the government for what we have done. What we plan to do is ensure that we remain one of the world's generous resettlement countries and we continue to be the world's third-largest resettlement country for refugees. We will ensure that the public understand that, when you secure the borders, the dividend of good economic management and good border control, means that we will be able to have a strongly supported migration program which is primarily skilled migration—where people come here for the hope and the opportunity that this country always delivers to people who come here with the right intentions.

I want to thank the Prime Minister, the government, my community and the people of Australia for helping us with that 'field goal from Johnathan Thurston' at the last minute to make sure that we are able to govern the country and continue to govern the country. I would also note that the coalition has been elected to government more often than not over the last 65 years, and I think that is a signal from the electorate that we listen and that we do the things that they ask us to do. Delivery of key infrastructure, delivery of a strong economy, delivery of debt and deficit reduction and delivery of our energy plan are the key priorities of the Turnbull government.

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