Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine this. You decide to set up a business to bring in international students. You name it the Australian College of Business and Trade. You have all the approvals granted to you. You know it's going to be a viable business, and you're approved for 512 students. Obviously, you need to go and put a lease in place. You get a four-year lease for a premises to host all your teachers and students. You want to make sure you're focused on those involved in hospitality, so you hire out a cookery course workshop, which is $6,000 or $7,000 a month—make it $8,000—and then a mechanical workshop for $6,000 a month. Then you have your lease, which is another $6,000. In total, it's $20,000 a month. It sounds like a heavy investment for a few individuals getting together.

Then, on 6 September, without any notice, the Albanese Labor government's Department of Employment and Workplace Relations sends out a letter reducing that figure of 513 students that you're approved for. Remember, you already have a lease in place, costing $20,000 per month. The number of students has gone down not to 400, 300 or even 100; it has now gone down to one student.

Sadly, this has happened right across the country when it comes to the VET sector. People have put their heart and soul into creating a business—putting leases in place and hiring staff—and their dreams are now completely shattered. It is absolutely heartbreaking and disgraceful that the Albanese Labor government would treat people this way. There are so many people from the Indian community in this very situation, who have these small businesses. They came to speak to me in my office in parliament. I also hear about it when I speak to my friends in the Chinese community.

Then we have immigration agents being served with notices from OMARA, the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. There have been potentially hundreds of these notices issued. They have been asked to please explain why a person has come to Australia on some sort of visa and then applied for protection. The migration agents have to explain why this has occurred. At the same time, I've met education providers who have had people come into their classes and remove students. And this is not a one-off; this is happening all the time. The simple reason is that Labor has made a complete mess of immigration, and they're taking it out on the VET providers and the immigration agents. If you look at the ABS data, net overseas migration was at 133,000 in the March quarter of 2024. That's the second highest, beaten only by Labor's previous record of 165,000 in 2023. This has put huge pressure Australians looking for rentals.

It gets worse. On 23 January 2023, the then immigration minister, Andrew Giles, signed direction 99, replacing previous directions. That stated that the AAT must take into account the strength, nature and duration of the individual's ties to Australia—not their criminal background. Sadly, in 2,800 cases, the AAT has released an individual who should not have been released.

Then we go back to the greatest of Labor's failings: the NZYQ court case. Only one person had to be released, but Labor went on to release 178 detainees, including seven murderers, 36 sex offenders and 72 violent offenders. Then they said: 'Trust us'—this was all through the previous minister, Minister Giles, in question time—'We have in place a board to make sure these people have surveillance and electronic monitoring on them.' But it just didn't take place. Sadly, we've seen many of these people go and reoffend. Innocent Australians have been attacked, victims of the Albanese Labor government's incompetence when it comes to managing the immigration system. It's an absolute disgrace, what the Prime Minister has done. It's hurting Australians, it's hurting the VET sector and it's hurting immigration agents. It's a disgrace.

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