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

Two weeks ago, with much fanfare, the Minister for Home Affairs stood up at the National Press Club to give what she said was a very important speech. It was notable for three things. The first reason it was notable was the fact that, after the government has been in power for nearly a year, she was delivering a review which clearly showed that the government had done no work in opposition. They had no plan to deal with immigration. As a matter of fact, they had to outsource it and wait one year to get the recommendations of that review to know what their policy might look like.

The second reason it was notable was that the minister said that she wanted the immigration policy under this government to reflect Labor's values. And it does reflect Labor's values, particularly their value, their want, for a big Australia. That's what their values have always been and that's what the policy that was outlined is all about.

The third reason this speech was notable was the fact that there was no mention of numbers in the speech—none whatsoever. It was very curious that there was no mention of numbers because the day before we'd specifically asked the minister to go through the numbers, especially the NOM numbers. There was no mention of this.

What happened the next day was very interesting. The Prime Minister had to meet with the state and territory leaders and talk about the migration numbers. One of the state and territory leaders leaked the then NOM number, so the government at five o'clock on the Friday afternoon scurried around to the press gallery and said: 'This isn't anything unusual. This number isn't unusual. This is the normal way this all works.' Yet, once we found out what the number was, it became absolutely apparent that that was a complete and utter porky. As a matter of fact—and you won't believe this—but they were telling the journalists in the gallery that this isn't unusual because it happened during the Spanish flu.

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