Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Scullin reminds me, it is extraordinary, particularly given that we had a report commissioned by the government last year—done by Peter Shergold, a very eminent former senior Australian public servant—into integration, employment and settlement outcomes for refugees and humanitarian entrants. It is suggested in this report—which the government has not released—that, in line with the very many submissions that were made to Professor Shergold, the government needs to do a great deal more in relation to settlement services. That's got obvious relevance to whether or not skilled migrants are going to end up in the regions. It's got obvious relevance as well to where refugees and humanitarian entrants are going to go in Australia.

We have had a decline in settlement services spending under the six years of this government. We have no attention being paid to and certainly no publication of the findings of the Shergold review, nor any response to the findings of the Shergold review. That is emblematic of the failure of this government to bring in policy designed not for getting a headline but to actually support the outcome that is claimed. The outcome that's desired here is getting migrants into regional Australia. What we want to see is attention paid by the government to what support services there are going to be if there are to be migrants in regional Australia. That will include whether or not there are going to be the kinds of settlement services that the recent but as yet unreleased Shergold report deals with.

There is another whole area of interaction with another area of policy that this government has completely failed to explain. It is something that has been drawn to the government's attention repeatedly—that is, how these two new visa classes are going to interact with the very large industry that Australia has in international education. It is quite apparent that the government has completely failed to understand the complexity of the issues that have to be considered when making even minor changes to visas that affect Australia's very important export earner—the international education system. These interactions are very complex. There can't be a quick fix. But we would suggest that the reputation of Australia's international education services, and the high standards that Australia provides in international education, are much too important to rush into, as the government appears to be doing here, without analysing what the full effects are going to be.

One small matter—or perhaps not a small matter; it is potentially a large matter, depending on how it's administered in the future—is the definition of what is a designated regional area. The government has made regulations that define being in regional Australia as 'not residing in Sydney or Melbourne or Brisbane or the Gold Coast or Perth'. Griffith University, in a submission to the Senate committee that looked at this bill, made this point. They said that:

… three State Capital Cities, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart as well as the national capital, Canberra, are considered regional for the purposes of Skilled Regional Visas that include International Students. It is particularly difficult to comprehend why Adelaide, with a population of 1,315,346, more than twice that of the Gold Coast's 663,321 according to 2018 data, is considered Regional over the Gold Coast.

The Australian Technology Network of Universities also raised concerns with the minister's definition. The ATN submission says it notes that:

… the regional/rural classification creates some inequalities in relation to Perth being excluded from the definition, while areas such as Canberra, Adelaide and Wollongong would be included. Perth is considered one of the most isolated cities in Australia and as a consequence has been at a considerable disadvantage in relation to attracting international students to the state. A reconsideration of this classification would assist in addressing this matter.

The ad hoc and arbitrary manner in which the minister has drafted this definition, which he has not attempted to support, is of concern. It is certainly something that needs to be looked at, and there are real concerns, particularly as have already been expressed by Queensland members of parliament, about the way in which this has been approached.

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