Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I commence, I just want to congratulate the member for Lingiari for her promotion to the Speaker's panel.

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024. This bill implements certain measures from the government's Migration Strategy, 'Getting migration working for the nation', related to skilled visas.

I want to start by talking about the very proud history that Australia has in the migration space. We are certainly a nation shaped and invigorated by the diverse cultures and talents of millions of our migrants. Of course, we start our migration history approximately 65,000 years ago, when the first of our now Indigenous Australians landed on our shores. This tradition of coming to Australia of course then started again with the British arriving here in 1788. With the arrival of the British, we ended up developing very important Western European institutions, such as the Westminster system of government, democracy and universal adult suffrage. We were, proudly, the second country in the world to give women the vote, and that is something that I think we should be very proud of as Australians.

Then our traditional migration culture continued, as we started to welcome others from all around the world. For example, in the 1850s, people from China first started to arrive. They rushed here to work on the gold rushes, for example, and I've got this statistic: in 1855, in Melbourne alone, there were 11,493 arrivals of Chinese people, which I think is quite an amazing stat when we consider how long ago that was.

Then, later on, towards the end of the 1800s, we had Afghans arrive here, and with their arrival, of course, they brought the camel, now known as the 'ship of the desert'. We again welcomed and opened our doors to many Afghanis in the 1980s and 1990s, following the war, first of all, against the Soviet Union and then the other wars of the 1990s. In that decade alone, around 7,000 Afghans landed on our shores.

We have, at the end of the day, become one of the most successful multicultural nations—I think, the most successful multicultural nation—in the world. It has been built on the nature of people arriving in our country and them having regard to their former heritage but embracing the traditions of Australia and the Australian way of life. Particularly at the end of World War II, we realised that we desperately needed a lot more skilled workers, and we took the opportunity with the dreadful decimation and devastation that had occurred in western and eastern Europe throughout World War II to welcome primarily Europeans to our shores. This tradition continued throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as we then opened our doors to people from Africa, the Americas, Asia, South-East Asia, the South Pacific and essentially all around the world. So we have a very proud history. Our immigrant story is a very proud one that's essential to our story.

We landed a position where today more than half of all Australians were either born overseas or have a parent born overseas. In my electorate of Hughes, we have people who have come to Australia from all around the world. For me, I don't have the romantic immigrant story that so many of my colleagues can speak about. I am fourth-generation Australian, but my great-grandparents, I'm told, did come here from England, Ireland, Scotland and other places.

Our immigration system is important. What we have seen under this government, unfortunately—under this Labor government, which prides itself on being a party friendly to immigration and to immigrants generally—is a failure so far to have addressed the skills shortage problem that we have in Australia. We have this shortage across professions, across trades. I have spoken about the shortage of GPs within my electorate. I have also spoken about the manufacturing sector within my electorate, throughout Moorebank, throughout Ingleburn, which is a new part of the electorate—it will be within the electorate of Hughes. We have manufacturing there, and they cannot get most of the apprentices, they can't get trades, and there is a massive shortage of things, from machinists to fitters and turners—all of those skills that are needed to run our manufacturing sector.

Then we turn to the construction and building industry. I have spoken in this place before about the chronic shortage that we have in areas such as building, electrical trades, the plumbing trades, the tiling trades and the roofers. So I ask: why is it that this government is not putting more money into domestic trades and into encouraging those trades that are going to build the supposed 1.2 million homes that we hear the Minister for Housing is going to build? We will wait a long time, I suggest, to see that.

There's another big area where there is a massive skills shortage in this country, and that's in aged care. In my electorate over at Hammondville, HammondCare provides residential care and particularly specialises in looking after elderly Australians who are suffering from dementia. I have been over to HammondCare on a number of occasions, and they have said to me over and over again that the shortage is caused not by people who don't want to work in aged care but largely by the lack of housing that is available for workers in aged care, and it's also of course linked to the very low wages that they are paid. So there is a big demand in our country to have to bring in aged-care workers from outside of Australia.

This legislation states that it intends to try to address the skills shortage. But, as with anything—and with all of Labor's legislation—we particularly have to look at it. We say that the devil is definitely in the detail. What is the bill providing for? It states that it's for certain settings for a new temporary Skills in Demand visa to replace the current Temporary Skill Shortage visa.

The Skills in Demand visa is going to consist largely of three different streams. There's a specialist skills stream. This will be for highly skilled workers earning over $135,000 per year. Interestingly, in that there are no trades. The trades are excluded. There are plenty of tradespeople who earn more than $135,000 a year. Again, I think this shows the lack of education and understanding that Labor has regarding the trades and the sorts of income levels that people in the trades are now earning. The second component is what's called a core skills stream. That is supposedly for workers earning over $73,150 per year in an occupation in shortage. The third category is simply a stream for workers with essential skills.

Again, we hear that and think: 'It seems that they're covering all of the bases that we need,' but there is no specific occupation list for the specialist skills pathway that's designed for high-income professionals, for example. There is no occupation list, but it definitely excludes trades workers, machine operators, drivers and labourers. I know plenty of machine operators working in manufacturing within my electorate who earn more than $135,000 per year, so Labor, again, in their usual way, have failed to do their research and have failed to bring some intellectual rigour to this legislation.

Then, if we look at that, it includes, for example, a register of approved work sponsors. While we on our side generally support the policy intent of the bill, we certainly need to close the gap. From our immigrants, we need to build the numbers of these skilled workers so that we have a lot more. But there are a number of concerns, and I note, while we are speaking, that the bill has been considered by a Senate committee and there is a Senate committee report. Some of those concerns are about the process to determine if an occupation is on the relevant skilled occupation list. The bill is silent on that. How quickly, for example, will one be able to change the skilled occupation list to respond to changes in certain occupations?

For example, how will one address geographical skills gaps? We heard the member for Riverina talk before about his experience when he was Deputy Prime Minister. He noticed that there was a big skills gap for mango pickers up in the Northern Territory. I think that's a very good example to show how quickly something like that would be included on the various lists. Also, how will the skilled occupation list cater for different employment needs across regional areas? This, again, is completely unknown. We also need to understand how well Jobs and Skills Australia will function and respond to the needs of the employment market. That, again, is another gap. It's another silence within this legislation.

Of course, importantly, we've been talking about the building and construction sector. What influence will the unions have on shaping the jobs that are listed on the skilled occupation list? For example, will we have the next iteration of the CFMEU limiting the number of builders that are allowed to get a visa so that they can artificially prop up their exorbitant wage demands? Concerns were also raised through the Senate committee process about the minimum income thresholds. I've raised that, particularly with machinists, for example, and the threshold of $137,000. While the intent of this legislation is sound, there are concerns with whether this legislation will in fact result in proper implementation and whether it will in fact address the chronic skills shortage that is in our country.

We do need to fix our migration system. We have seen for 2½ years, since Labor has been in power, an extraordinarily high number of immigrants coming into our country. I have taken the time to talk about the wonderful history and diversity that immigrants have brought to our country, but this government has brought in immigrants, a number of them from war-torn countries, without following proper processes. I include people from Pakistan and Gaza in that. They did not follow the proper processes with those people. So it is very important that this legislation is properly scrutinised and that it addresses reforming the Migration Act and particularly addresses the skills shortage we have in Australia.

See this speech in context