Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to inform the parliament of the coordinated approach to migration taken by 10 shires and a regional city in my electorate and how federal and WA Labor are strangling their initiative. This week, I wrote to the Assistant Minister for Immigration, Matt Thistlethwaite, expressing grave concerns about his recent response to me regarding an application by Regional Development Australia Great Southern on behalf of the 11 municipalities for a designated area migration agreement, or DAMA

Mr Thistlethwaite has only been in the job for two weeks, after Mr Albanese demoted his previous immigration dream team—Andrew Giles and Clare O'Neil—so I do not blame him for the tardy response to my letter, which came almost six months after I wrote to urge Mr Giles to expedite the approval of a DAMA for WA's Great Southern region. My six months on hold to Australia's immigration hierarchy pales in comparison to the 16 months that the Great Southern has been waiting for a decision on its much-needed DAMA.

My main concern, from the tenor of Assistant Minister Thistlethwaite's reply to me, is that a DAMA for the Great Southern may be dead in the water. If that's the case, it would be a savage blow to a region that has long been a primary industries powerhouse but is now struggling to attract workers. Great Southern is one of the two regions, nationally, to be hit hardest by Labor's looming ban on live exports. It was heartening to see hundreds of farmers out the front of Parliament House yesterday demanding that Mr Albanese can the ban and keep the sheep.

Minister Thistlethwaite's letter extolled the virtues of a statewide DAMA, which was recently settled between WA and the federal Labor government, but the new, statewide DAMA is not a regional agreement. WA has nine regions, each with unique industry and development needs. A stark illustration of this is that 126—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 09:49 to 10:02

A stark illustration of this is that 126 occupations proposed under the Great Southern DAMA are not on the WA DAMA occupation list. The WA DAMA will best serve the state's great mining regions, while the Great Southern has an agriculture and tourism based economy. Labor's bull-at-a-gate advocacy for a statewide DAMA ignores this basic fact of regional economics.

As DAMAs were introduced to reflect regional diversity, any move by Labor to block existing applications for regional DAMAs, in favour of a statewide one, would be a very bad move. I've called Mr Thistlethwaite to confirm that the Great Southern DAMA application is still under active consideration. Continued delays or refusal in favour of a top-down statewide DAMA would disadvantage the 11 regional shires that have come together to finalise a bespoke regional agreement tailored to the requirements of the employers in the Great Southern. Such initiatives should be nurtured, not left to wither on the vine. I've urged Mr Thistlethwaite to ensure that, after significant delays on the watch of Mr Giles, the Great Southern DAMA is approved forthwith.

See this speech in context