Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to sum up the debate here and to thank everyone for their contribution. I really thank everyone for the spirit in which that has been given—by members of the government and members of the opposition and crossbench. I think it's fair to say that there is a total bipartisan commitment to the Pacific and a recognition that Australia is proudly a member of the Pacific family. Our future is in the Pacific. Our interests are dependent on a prosperous, stable Pacific. We are really intent on making that contribution.

I thank the member for Werriwa, in particular, for her last contribution. It summed up the key features of the bill, which I won't go into in any detail. I thank my opposition counterparts, the member for Wannon and the member for Riverina, for their contributions. I won't reflect on the member for Riverina's discussion of his rugby league abilities. I think the less said, the better! But I thank him for his contribution, his commitment to the Pacific and his powerful oratory that covered the really positive impact Pacific workers are making in our country and in his electorate of Riverina and its industries, and which also highlighted their selfless sacrifice in the Lismore floods. The member for Wannon was very right to say we should approach the Pacific with humility and respect. That's what this government is intent on doing.

The Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme is going from strength to strength. We have around 40,000 workers in the economy filling labour shortages in Australia. I had the privilege of meeting 17 Tuvaluan workers, when I was in their country last week, who are about to come to Australia to be part of the 500-strong aged-care worker pilot. They were keen to come across. They talked about their respect for their seniors, their reverence for their seniors and how they were really excited to bring those values to look after senior Australians. So not only is it a win for Australia; it's a win for those workers. On average, a long-term PALM worker on the up to four-year visa will send home A$15,000 a year. That remittance is massive. It's in the context of a region where between a third and half of all Pacific islanders live on A$1,000 a year or less; it's in the context of Pacific island nations that depend upon remittance flows. For some countries in the Pacific, up to 43 per cent of their GDP is remittances. This is vital cash going back to sustain economies. It also sustains communities. It keeps communities going. It lifts families out of poverty. It also gives great skills to workers.

I met with a Timor-Leste worker at a strawberry farm in northern Tasmania. Her way of counting the strawberry punnet is to think of every punnet as an equivalent brick to go to the house that she is building in Timor-Leste. It's a great way of thinking about how her contribution to our economy is building a future for her and her family. I met with returned meat workers from the Solomon Islands, one of whom was starting a business because of the money and skills he learned in Australia. So the PALM scheme is incredibly important.

I will say again that we are very aware that some Pacific countries are very conscious about how many people are coming to Australia. I will re-emphasise that every Pacific country chooses how many people come to Australia and who comes to Australia. That's very, very important to re-state. The trial of 200 families on the PALM long-term visa coming to Australia is really important to deal with some of the issues that arise when workers are away from their families for four years. I'm very excited about how that pilot will go and to see the results. It was an election commitment from the Australian Labor Party at the last election. It was part of the most comprehensive Pacific policy a party has ever taken to an election, and we are really delighted to be implementing that election commitment.

Another election commitment was the Pacific engagement visa, which, for the first time in the history of this country, is allocating a specific part of our permanent migration stream of 3,000 spots to one region—in this case, the Pacific—to build the Pacific diaspora. People-to-people links with the Pacific are critical to our future. You had to have seen what seemed like 100,000 Australians of Samoan heritage out on the streets in the week leading up to the Rugby League World Cup final last year to see the diaspora in this country and the proud roots they've put into our community. The PEV is intended to do that and to steepen that. It's a very important scheme. It's welcomed by the Pacific. In most instances, they are very enthusiastic for the scheme to start and for Pacific islanders to permanently migrate to this country. At the moment, only one per cent of our permanent migration intake is people of Pacific heritage. That is too low. We want to grow that. We want them to make a contribution to our society and to build upon the great numbers already here.

I thank everyone for their contribution. These bills are important. They're critical parts of this government's Pacific agenda about being the partner of choice for the Pacific, being a proud member of the Pacific family and rebuilding our connections to that incredibly important region, a region vital to our future prosperity. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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