Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

My electorate is a guide. It is a community. This is not—

Mr Fletcher interjecting —

No. You are totally out of touch with Australia. Your government is totally out of touch with Australia. Let's not get into that. I'm sure there are many Canberrans listening to this conversation right now and I can go into bat for Canberra all night. What I'm talking about here is Canberrans who are confused, hurt, angered and outraged by the changes this government is making—for no reason, with no explanation and with no clear rationale. These changes are going to have a major effect on the lives of not just Canberrans, but people right across Australia, and those people are rightly outraged. It is one big question mark. This legislation was just dropped—and then nothing. There was the bamboozling, contorted response in question time yesterday, and that was about it. This is like so much done by this government. The thought bubbles get put out there with no explanation. They do not even have the decency to explain why they are doing this. It is just appalling. People are rightly outraged.

If my community, my colleague's community, the member for Parramatta's community—so many of the communities on this side of the chamber—are any indication, then you will have outraged members. And if you are not getting a load of emails on this I would be very surprised. Take the time to actually have a look at your emails rather than getting your staff to look at them.

As I said, I attended this incredibly powerful community forum a few weeks ago that was organised by the multicultural community here in Canberra. These people are outraged; they're hurt; they're angered; they're concerned; they're confused; they're upset—because they don't know why these changes are being made. These changes are going to affect and potentially jeopardise the lives and the futures of their families. Particularly, it is seen by my community as moving the goalposts. People step on a particular trajectory. They make the investment. They come over to Australia. They move their lives over here. They make the investment in establishing their community here, establishing businesses here, establishing their lives and getting their children into schools, and then the goalposts get changed. How fair is that? How welcoming is that? It's breathtaking. Everyone on that side is so glib about these changes, and yet, when you have so many conversations with those people, their stories are tragic.

I am just going to read out a few of them. One is a letter that I received from Robert. He is a British citizen and an Australian permanent resident. He says: 'Although, as a noncitizen of Australia I do not have a vote'—he lives in Theodore, in the south of my electorate—'I have been continuously and legally in Australia as X's partner and now husband since 14 December 2012. During that time, both as part of my commitment to X and to my new country, I have been working towards citizenship'—doing the right thing. He goes on: 'I would have been eligible under general eligibility rules to apply for citizenship on 4 June this year, but as of 20 April, via ministerial fiat pending retrospective legislation, I find that I must wait another three years even to apply. I consider this to be unjust'—as I do too, Robert. He continues: 'My loyalty is to this country, and I'm proud to say that I'm an excellent resident and uphold and abide by Australian values, but this legislation will exclude me and many like me from fully participating in the life and democratic process of our new country.'

Robert explains what so many people—people from every country across the world who are living here in Australia—are going through at the moment and the challenges that they are facing. What is really insidious about this is the fact that the citizenship applications have been stopped. They've been put on hold by the department. From what I can gather—and I'm hearing from a number of people across the community—people have got their citizenship process underway, and everything has been put on ice. Even though this legislation hasn't been passed, nothing is being processed. People have done the right thing; they've got their applications in the system, and yet the whole thing's been put on ice, because the department is obviously waiting for this legislation to come into play.

The legislation hasn't been enacted, so why is everything on ice? Why is the department going slow on this? These people have done the right thing. They've got their processes going; they've got their applications in the system, and yet they've just been completely stalled. It's absolutely outrageous. This legislation has not been passed, and yet these people's applications have been put on ice. How fair is that?

I don't have much time left, but I want to now turn my attention to the submission that the ACT multicultural council made on these changes. The submission came out of a forum that they held in June that was very well attended. They expressed a number of concerns. Also I want to reflect some of the views that were passed on at that forum. A community leader pointed out that most older migrants over 50 will be unable to pass the new English language requirements. They're very concerned about the extent of ministerial discretion, which is perceived by the migrant community as an effort to stop people from non-English-speaking ethnic communities to migrate to Australia. There are significant challenges here with students who have come to Australia to study who are now on temporary graduate visas. There are real questions here about this term 'patriotism' that is being floated around. What does that mean? What values are going to be changed? As you know, there are pledges made by new citizens. What values are going to be changed there?

Debate interrupted.

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