Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for raising an important issue to the House because the integrity of the visa system in Australia is something that needed to be corrected when we came to government given what we'd inherited. In October 2023, this government invested $50 million in compliance. There was a reason why we had to invest additional money in compliance. During the life of the previous government, where the principle person responsible for the portfolio is now the Leader of the Opposition, the number of compliance staff had gone from 360 down to 203. In terms of compliance, one of the most disturbing visas was what was known as the golden ticket visa where, instead of getting a visa on the basis of having a skill, a connection to Australia or a business that employed people, you would get the visa on the basis of having cash. That was how that worked.

A number of reports came through, dealing with the huge problems of integrity in the visa system. I have referred previously to the Productivity Commission. We also had the Nixon review. Let me refer to a report a former minister in the Home Affairs portfolio, the member for La Trobe, gave on the regulation of migration and education agents. This gives a sense of what had happened to integrity in the visa system under them. These are the words of the member for La Trobe:

Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole to bring out illegal workers who are often vulnerable and open to exploitation. This represents an orchestrated scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised.

They're the words of someone who sits on the frontbench of the Leader of the Opposition—a Leader of the Opposition who gets approached at a fundraiser by someone saying, 'Can we bring back cash for visas?' and he's straight onto it. If only they'd asked for an au pair as well, he would have been able to deliver that too!

This is a Leader of the Opposition who, no matter how tough he talks, you should look at what he does. He votes for students to be unlimited. He votes for cuts to compliance and he votes to bring back cash for visas.

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