Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That business intervening before order of the day No. 11, government business, be postponed until a later hour this day.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion before the House is once again seeking to change the order of the day to bring forward this government's shameful changes to skilled migration that amount to nothing more than an attack on skilled migrants. It would seem that the events of last night mean that they may have changed the leader but they have not changed their policies. It is another Labor leader and it is another policy failure that this government is trying to force onto this parliament.

This parliament has sought to have this matter inquired into, and that has been frustrated by those on that side of the House. This parliament has been seeking to ensure that this government just does not ram more union dominated agendas and legislation through this parliament. The unions were running the Labor Party yesterday and the unions are still running the Labor Party today, because this bill which the now Prime Minister expressed some months ago real concerns about, as many others did, is now back on the agenda. It is back on the agenda of this government. This agenda of policy failures continues under this Prime Minister—because they can change their leader but they cannot change their spots. They cannot change their connections to the union movement. The union movement is hard-wired into this government.

One has to ponder what deal was done with the union movement last night. What deal was done with the member for Maribyrnong, also known by those on his side of the House as the 'kingslayer', to ensure that this Prime Minister would be restored—this Prime Minister who did last night what he himself decried being done to him three years ago and who for the last three years has assiduously worked to get his revenge.

Last night clearly there was a deal done, and the unions still want their pound of flesh from this Prime Minister. This bill was listed as item 11, and the very first thing that this Prime Minister wants to do is to put the union's legislation first on his docket. The first thing that he wants to do in this place is to deal with this union-dominated bill. And this comes at the same time that in the other place what has just occurred is that the government has voted against the restoration of temporary protection visas.

We all know the government's total opposition to the Howard government border protection measures, and it would seem that this government under this Prime Minister is no different to the one under the member for Lalor that this Prime Minister has succeeded. They will continue to deny that Prime Minister Rudd, now the restored Prime Minister Rudd, stands by his decision to get rid of the proven measures of the Howard government. He stands by that decision, because the first thing they did in the Senate was to vote against temporary protection visas.

And the first thing they want to do in this House is to vote for the union-sponsored legislation to crack down on skilled migrants in this country. That is the agenda—nothing changes. You can change the Labor leaders but you cannot change their dedication and undying devotion to the union movement. Indeed, Mr Howes may well need to sell his house. This is a government that has sold out to the union movement more often than anyone in this place would care to nominate.

The reason that the government want to bring this bill on is that they know that they have failed on border protection like no other. What this bill was designed to do, under the guise of the former Prime Minister, was to deflect attention from the government's border failures which have resulted in the number of illegal arrivals to Australia amounting to over 45,000 people. When the Howard government left office the average rate of arrivals illegally by boat was two per month, the budget was $85 million a year, and there were four people in detention who had arrived illegally by boat. Under this government, regardless of who the Prime Minister is, the budget next year is purported to be $2,900 million a year, there are over 23,000 people who arrived illegally by boat who are in the system, and we now have arrivals of over 3,000 per month.

That is the record. So I am not surprised that this government would want to continue with the distraction of forcing on this parliament this legislation that seeks to hide their border failures. I can also understand why they particularly want to do it with their new Prime Minister. The new Prime Minister started the boats, and he cannot be trusted to stop the boats. That is the issue with this Prime Minister: he started the boats and he cannot stop them. I imagine that he will come in here with all sorts of new theories—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I get the member for Cook to return to the motion before the chair.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reason that the coalition opposes this matter being brought on in the manner in which it is being done is that the government are trying to hide, cover up and distract from the new Prime Minister's record on border protection. That is what they want to do. I am sure the new Prime Minister will have lots of new thoughts and lots of new theories. He may even—but do not hold your breath—decide to apologise to the country, as he should, for removing the proven border protection measures of the Howard government.

The Australian people know that this Prime Minister does not believe in stronger border protection measures, because they have seen his record and because when he was given that opportunity in 2007 he chose to abolish strong border protection measures and instead put in place much weaker measures. We know that, as the boats continue to arrive one after the other, the Prime Minister—as he was then—will continue to make excuses. He went through a series of chronic failures. It was this Prime Minister, when he was Prime Minister previously, who had his minister for immigration give permanent protection visas to those who blew up SIEV36. That was his record. It was this Prime Minister who instituted the asylum freeze that actually hard-wired into the system the riots that later occurred under this Prime Minister's successor. This Prime Minister's bungling of the Oceanic Viking saga, with his megaphone diplomacy, had two significant impacts: firstly, it put out a clarion call to everybody around the world that the Labor government was a soft touch on boats—so get yourself to Indonesia because you can get yourself to Australia, because that Prime Minister is a soft touch; and, secondly, a la what this Prime Minister's successor did in terms of the live cattle trade with Indonesia, this Prime Minister's approach to Indonesia was to embarrass and to force his ego on that Indonesian government. We all know the outcome of that.

If, indeed, the Prime Minister is to go to Indonesia in a week or so, after he has apologised for the actions of his predecessor with regard to the live cattle trade, perhaps the Prime Minister should also apologise to the Indonesian government for the bungling and insulting way in which he handled the crisis over the Oceanic Viking. It was a crisis that was completely self-made by this Prime Minister.

This bill, which has been brought before this parliament, is seeking to do one thing: to choke the 457 system, which has been so important. It is a system that the now Treasurer, when as Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, said:

… they had the balance right.

I would have thought with the change in the line-up—which is a moving feast, as there are more vacancies sitting on that front bench today than we have seen in a very long time as they try to scramble together this chaotic, dysfunctional and divided government—that one of the things the now Treasurer would like to see done would be to honour what he said when he was minister for immigration in his discussions with the new Prime Minister, which is that this bill be discarded with; but that is not what is happening.

The first thing this Prime Minister is seeking to do is to have this matter brought on for debate and decided here in this House. As the Prime Minister moves around the country—as his goes into seats like Banks, Greenway, Parramatta or Reid—and talks about his support for skilled migration, he should remind those whom he is speaking to about his actions here on this day, because this bill is an attack on skilled migrants and it is an attack on the skilled migration program.

A government member interjecting—

The minister interjects, but the minister does not even understand the significance of this scheme. He does not seem to understand that the 457 program is the way in which skilled migrants are increasingly coming into this country and moving onto permanent residency. The minister opposite has interjected and suggested that somehow the coalition is demonising skilled migrants here. What we know about this government is that they cannot do anything about stopping people coming the wrong way, so now they are going to try and stop people coming the right way—but there are a few exceptions.

There is the former Prime Minister's media adviser. Maybe he has got 29 days to find a job or maybe the new Prime Minister will take him on! Maybe he will, otherwise he has got 29 days. This bill is seeking to extend that out to 90. Maybe the 457s will continue to survive for those who want to work in the union movement in communications. The union movement seem to want to spend a lot more time on communicating the government's message than on actually representing those they are supposed to represent and promoting their working conditions and their wellbeing in the workplace.

This is a union movement which is completely locked at the hip to this government, and anyone who thought the new Prime Minister was going to have a change of form when it came to the unions or doing deals with the unions and the factions they run here in this place is getting a very early lesson: nothing has changed when it comes to this government. They can change their leaders as often as they like, but they cannot change the chaos that is happening on our borders, the dysfunction and division that is occurring in their own ranks or the team that they have on their front bench—which is very vacant at the moment. They cannot form a team that can produce the type of stability that we need—and this is a time when we do need stability. So the fact that the government want to chop and change the order of today's proceedings to try and ram through this union-driven bill, I think, is just a demonstration of the continuing division and dysfunction that is evident in this government.

There are two teams on offer here. There is the team that has worked together cooperatively on this side of the House for the last three or four years—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And there is the question before the chair.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise this point, Madam Speaker, about the stability of the teams because this side of the House is prepared to deal with business as it was listed for today. I refer to the Daily Program. Nowhere on this daily notice is item No. 11 even referred to—nowhere at all. But it now makes its way off the Notice Paper right down the order. I know that the batting order of this government on their front bench has now been completely depleted, but now they are reaching down the order of the Notice Paper to try and drag things up to pursue the continued agenda of the previous Prime Minister and the continuing Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. I suspect that minister has a bit of explaining to do to the new Prime Minister, but I will allow him to do that in his own time. Maybe that minister will be the same one and will continue to babysit the border failures that he inherited from his predecessor, who is now Treasurer. Maybe that will continue to be his job. But that is the thing with this government: the uncertainty regarding the agenda today and the uncertainty reigning along the ranks of this government, who do not know whether they are Arthur or Martha, or whether they are in a job or out of a job, or what they are doing, or what they are going to talk about.

The government have not only lost their way but lost the plot. They have completely and utterly lost the plot. They have lost control of its agenda, they have lost control of the borders and they have lost control of themselves. That is on display.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

It is on display as the minister at the table, now Deputy Prime Minister, tries to interject and further interrupt this debate for one purpose, and that is to try and ensure that he can continue to throw his weight around this place, now wearing the Deputy Prime Minister's title, and bring this matter up for debate in this House today. This bill that the government seeks to bring forward today is all about one thing, and that is continuing to pay off the unions for their support. The unions supported the last Prime Minister, and whatever deal they did with the member for Maribyrnong, the kingslayer last night, the government will honour that deal here in this place as they vote today.

Debate interrupted.