Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin a discussion of the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024, I want to talk about a panel I was invited to join for the e61 Institute with the members for Wentworth and Fraser this morning in order to discuss the report of the e61 Institute which they launched today, The lucky country or the lucky city? I was proud as the member for Mallee and a member of the Nationals to fly the flag for regional Australia.

The e61 report confirms that, while there is a wage premium for people living in the inner city, the lower income of workers in regional Australia may actually go further, depending, for instance, on the housing situation in that locality. The report makes that point for industrial and care and service workers, who it says 'have for some time experienced higher wages net of housing costs in regional areas than in the city'. The report goes on to say, 'For these workers, the incentive to stay in or move to the city has been weakening.' However I'm sorry to add that, in some parts of Mallee, under the Albanese Labor government, the cost of housing—buying a home or renting—has gone through the roof also, just like the cost of living, which combines to make it harder to secure the workforce that we desperately need in the health sector, in agriculture and across the board.

A recent Suburbtrends report called the Rental pain index showed five of the 12 councils from my electorate in the top 20 for the worst rental pain, with Northern Grampians Shire sadly in second place and Swan Hill in fourth place. With the trend of formerly city based workers heading to the regions, e61's report notes:

… it will be important that regional housing supply can adjust, to accommodate the additional demand without upward pressure on housing costs that could create inequality within regions.

That is what we're already seeing in Mallee.

I note Master Builders Australia have said in their submission to the Senate inquiry into this bill:

Master Builders has long advocated for migration settings that ensure Australia is attracting the right skills. Unfortunately, the Federal Government's policy framework and immigration mechanisms are not kind to migrants who are skilled in building and construction trades. Visas are difficult to secure, costly and come with long processing times. The skills recognition process is cumbersome, costly, slow and in some cases completely unnecessary.

The exclusion of trades occupations from skilled migration is a sure-fire way to exacerbate the housing shortage across the country. With an aging workforce and booming demand for housing and infrastructure, Master Builders anticipates that at least half a million people must enter the industry by 2029. No fewer than two-thirds of these new entrants will need to be skilled tradespeople, just to maintain business as usual. However, securing visas for these critical workers is already a herculean task. They are difficult to secure, costly and plagued by long processing times.

We are in a national housing crisis, with 1.2 million new homes needed to be built between now and June 2029. In the September quarter of 2024 alone, 90,000 new workers are needed to build 60,000 new homes nationwide. The Master Builders' sentiments are similar to those my constituents express to me with increasing frequency. Mallee farmers and small- to medium-sized-business owners rely heavily on skilled migrants to fill critical gaps. Whether it's tradespeople, doctors, nurses, teachers or agricultural workers, migrants are the ones who keep the engine running. But this bill treats these essential workers like spare parts that can be swapped out at will, rather than the vital cogs that keep the machine of regional Australia turning.

Last year in October I spoke briefly in the House as deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration on the tabling of our two-year report Migration, pathway to nationbuilding, which I must say we were doing and in the process of when the Labor government also announced a review by Martin Parkinson. I'm proud to say a significant number of the recommendations from our report are specific to regional Australia, starting at recommendation 56, calling for greater uniformity in migration laws and regulations concerning regional Australia.

As shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health, I particularly emphasise recommendation 60, which urges the government to scale incentives to foster the long-term settlement of healthcare professionals in outer regional and remote areas. One of the most pressing concerns in Mallee and in regional Australia is the shortage of healthcare professionals. Regional healthcare is crucial to the survival and economic growth of regional communities. Working families do not want to move to a country area where they cannot receive adequate health care, it's no surprise. In the short to medium term, international medical professionals are essential to regional healthcare services, bringing not only their skills and expertise but also a deep commitment to serving communities that are often underserviced. Yet, as one South African couple, both medical doctors, told the Leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, and me during a visit in the south of my electorate in Mallee, it cost them $280,000 to come and practise in Australia.

Regional Australia's dire health workforce needs have been exacerbated by Labor's misguided changes to the distribution priority areas, adding Modified Monash Model 2 areas, like the outer suburban areas of capital cities. This policy shift robbed genuine rural and remote regions of the doctors they desperately need, leading to a 56 per cent increase in doctors leaving the regions within the first six months. International medical professionals face hurdles in the registration process with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, AHPRA. In Mallee, I've assisted healthcare providers, advocating to expedite the inordinate processing delays for these professionals. In some communities, patients rely on one doctor. Denying medical care to hundreds of thousands of regional Australians due to bureaucratic red tape is dangerous to people's health and frustrating for the doctors whose ability to practise is jeopardised. This bill could make the situation worse by creating additional compliance requirements for sponsors, potentially leading to even longer delays in bringing skilled medical professionals to our regions. AHPRA must be held accountable for these delays, and the government must take immediate action to address inefficiencies in the system.

Australia also faces a critical shortage of at least 110,000 direct aged-care workers within the next decade, with an annual shortfall of 30,000 to 35,000 according to the Centre for Economic Development of Australia. If these shortages persist, we won't have enough workers to meet the basic care standards recommended by the royal commission. With low-skilled migration levels and a sector attrition rate of around 65,000 people per year, the situation is dire. Regional areas, like my electorate, are hit hardest by these shortages. What's bleak in the city is even more severe in regional Australia. The nation building report noted on sponsorship:

… the Law Council highlighted inflexibility and opacity in the employer sponsored visa program that impedes the ability of businesses to attract and retain workers to service their needs.

They called for:

… better communication and assistance to sponsoring employers to help navigate the complexity, ensure the lodging of 'decision ready applications', and ultimately contribute to a more streamlined process.

As I said at the tabling of the nation building report, the Master Builders also queried whether regional sponsors ought to be exempt from paying for the Skilling Australians Fund, and I repeat what I said then: there is some force to this submission. For agriculture, the nation building report noted:

… the National Farmers' Federation drew attention to the 'significant costs' associated with skills shortage visas, encompassing visa fees, assistance from migration agents or other experts, and the requirement for sponsoring employers to contribute to the Skilling Australians Fund. While acknowledging some of the costs were 'understandable', others, they believed, could be minimised through simplification and streamlining and, in so doing, reduce visa processing cost and the need to engage migration experts.

Recruiting farm labour has always been a challenge, with 57 per cent of farms struggling to find adequate workers. Skilled workers have been instrumental in filling these gaps. Farmers face significant challenges in securing enough workers during peak seasons. The potential penalties for non-compliance are deterring some farmers from participating in sponsorship schemes altogether.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee concluded its review of this bill in September, and I'll highlight Senator Scarr's additional comments to that report. The Albanese Labor government significantly hiked the TSMIT, the temporary skilled migration income threshold, from $53,900 to $70,000, and again this July to $73,150. Small businesses in the Mallee electorate are shocked at what they must now pay to secure workers. Senator Scarr noted that this bill proposes changing the TSMIT to three other thresholds: the specialist, core and essential skills income thresholds, with the aim of reducing the likelihood of a skilled migrant displacing an Australian worker. That reads like something written by the unions. And here we are, in a relatively full-employment economy, where regional Victoria has the nation's lowest unemployment rate of 3.9 per cent. The Victorian Labor government has been celebrating regional Victoria's low unemployment rate—for instance, welcomed it with fanfare when it was as low as 2.4 per cent in September 2023. According to the Victorian government's three-month average figures, regional unemployment is as low as 1.2 per cent in Warrnambool and south-west Victoria and 1.3 per cent in Shepparton. However, I have to emphasise that it's actually 5.4 per cent in my electorate of Mallee and the same in Gippsland.

Regional Australia is the backbone of our nation, contributing the farmers, the builders and the engineers of our prosperity, feeding and clothing the nation and the world. I made these very points recently, in marking the centenary celebrations at Robinvale, where I had also taken the migration committee during our two-year report deliberations. Migrants of Italian and Greek origin, in particular, have underpinned Robinvale's economic success as an irrigation powerhouse.

Instead of adding more layers of bureaucracy, we should be looking at ways to streamline the process for bringing skilled migrants to regional areas. This could include faster processing times for regional sponsorships, reduced compliance burdens for regional employers and greater support for organisations that sponsor skilled migrants.

When you consider the migrant workforce in my region, and the inordinate percentage of my electorate office's work spent in progressing migration matters, the government should consider a dedicated migration navigator in Mildura to streamline processing. It's not good enough to outsource expediting of visas to the offices of members of parliament, where we have no jurisdiction. There has been a significant increase in Mallee small business constituents coming to me, wanting me to help them to navigate the visa system. Some have been priced out of being able to afford workers due to the TSMIT changes. Others can't afford migration agents or lawyers, and the department is not in a position to provide guidance.

It feels as though Labor, by design, are trying to crush small business into submission or into insolvency in record numbers, so that unionised big business and government-run agencies can theoretically step in to run the country. However, we, on this side of the House, pay attention to history and outcomes. We know that Labor's controlled economies do not benefit the regions but, rather, capital cities, and, therefore, rob from regions to buy votes in the inner cities.

I urge the government to reconsider the provisions of this bill and to work with regional communities to develop policies that support their growth and development. After all, we've seen this movie before. Labor comes in with rushed immigration legislation, leaving loopholes that need to be fixed later on. Our regional communities deserve better resources and better outcomes.

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