Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

No, it shouldn't be a chook raffle. What we are talking about here is a pathway to Australian citizenship. Never has it been suggested anywhere that I can find that a pathway to Australian citizenship should be done through a lottery. It is staggering this is what the government has come up with. That's why we say with serious sincerity that, given we would like to be able to support a Pacific Engagement Visa, the government should go back to the drawing board in how it's going about doing this. If they don't then it shows they are not prepared to listen, that they aren't prepared to act in a bipartisan way for the benefit of this nation, because we can't see how these two bills will in any way over the longer term benefit Australia or benefit the Pacific Islands and that should be of serious concern for the government. It is of serious concern for us.

So I call on the government to support the second reading amendment that I have put forward on behalf of the coalition. I will just read it again, especially for the interests of those government members who have been whingeing and wining from the corner over there:

"whilst welcoming moves to establish a Pacific Engagement Visa, the House:

(1) declines to give the bill a second reading because:

(a) permanent residency and citizenship of Australia should not be decided by a lottery; and

(b) Australia's immigration system should be nation-building with a key focus on the economic contribution immigrants make to our country; and

(2) calls on the Government to develop a new approach to implement the Pacific Engagement Visa."

I hope the government will see fit to sit down with the coalition and work through this issue. If they don't then, sadly, they are putting in place a principle which will completely change the way our immigration system is enacted in this country.

In conclusion, this should give those on the government benches pause for thought. These bills also, for the first time since the white Australian policy, undermine the non-discriminatory nature of our immigration system. For the first time since the white Australia policy, they undermine that fundamental principle of non-discrimination when it comes to our immigration policy. If nothing else, that should give those on the government benches pause for thought.

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