Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for North Sydney. She has raised four very significant issues, and I think it'd be fair to say that we as the government share the principles she's expressing but have found the need to give expression to them differently. I should say at the start that the issues relating to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal are not within the purview of the Department of Home Affairs. I say to my dear friend, the member for La Trobe, who was very interested in getting an answer to his questions about safer communities, that, similarly, he could perhaps raise those matters with the Attorney-General if he's so determined to get to the bottom of those issues.

But on those questions, let me also say that this budget reveals that, when it comes to support for multicultural communities, this is a government that keeps its promises. The election commitments that we made are enacted within them. Many reflect the deep understanding that the Australian Labor Party and the Albanese government have for the particular needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities and, in fact, their recognition of many of the aspirations that the shadow minister, the member for La Trobe, set out, but they give effect to them in a transparent and considered manner.

You raised three other issues. The government does not share your view when it comes to the offshore processing arrangements. I should make clear to the House that, with the securing of the transfer of six people from Nauru to New Zealand to resume their lives, the Minister for Home Affairs delivered very significant and long-overdue news. I remind everyone that this really was something that could've happened in 2012 when the New Zealand government made that generous offer. There have been 10 wasted years and untold damage. My friend the Minister of Home Affairs is getting on with the task of dealing with that now.

The issues around the safety net are important issues and, on my part, they have been the subject of intensive consultation with the sector to ensure that those matters that are set out in Labor's platform are given effect to, and are given effect to properly. There is a lot of work to be done in that regard to make sure that we get it right. Similarly, you talk about this budget not dealing with the issue of the commitments that our government made in respect of progressively, as you say, increasing the intake. This is absolutely critical. But, again, it's critical that we get it right, and it's critical that, when we resettle people, we give them every support they need. That requires giving proper consideration to those arrangements which enable someone who comes here on the humanitarian pathway to get everything they need to begin a life here, to feel that they belong and to be supported to make the contribution that we know they can make—indeed, to recognise, as the member for Bennelong said, that refugees, as do all migrants, make our country richer, stronger and safer.

We are going to work through a plan—as we have been doing, in the course of consultations with the sector—to get to 27,000 per annum. Of course, we are going to deal with the commitments we have made around community sponsorship and, importantly, with the commitments for community sponsorship places to be additional to those supported by the government program directly. We are doing so right now. I'll also take this opportunity to advise the House that, under our government, the refugee and humanitarian program is non-discriminatory. That was not the case for the last nine years, which is utterly shameful. We will accept humanitarian entrants on the basis of need, as advised by the UNHCR. That is the proper course, and it always should have been the proper course for any responsible Australian government, particularly now that—I know the member for North Sydney knows this well—we are living in a world where there are more people forcibly displaced than at any time in human history, and we have to face the reality that climate change and its impacts are going to make this challenge even worse. As Minister Bowen has been doing in respect of our international engagement on climate change, doing the right thing at home is not only the right thing to do morally and not only the right thing to do in the national interest; it is a vital thing to do if we are to play a meaningful role in a constructive international process that makes a difference in dealing with this international humanitarian crisis.

This is something that I think Australians would like to see us do. We see that in the response to the awful circumstances in Afghanistan, which were touched on by my friend the member for Holt. We see that in response to the crisis and the ongoing conflict brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We can do better. Under this government, we will do better.

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