Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to record in this House the opposition of my community to Minister Peter Dutton's callous, out-of-touch decision to close the Dandenong immigration office. This is a multicultural area where more than 50 per cent of people were born overseas, and this small office provides critical access to services right across the south-east of Melbourne. There are only 15 staff, yet the office handles over 20,000 visits per year. It is utter, total hypocrisy; at best, $200,000 rent will be saved, while the department is spending $250 million to build a new headquarters in Canberra.

The Prime Minister talks of jobs in the suburbs, yet the reality is that he is cutting these jobs from the suburbs. We hear a big-game talk from the government about decentralisation, but apparently that applies only to the Deputy Prime Minister, because in this case we are recentralising jobs in the centre of Melbourne. We hear from the Prime Minister, when he comes to Melbourne, about his 20-minute city—you know, how you can live and work within 20 minutes of home? City planning, selfies on trams?

But the reality is this will mean 40,000 extra trips on trains and roads 35 kilometres into the Melbourne CBD. It is fine to say that services should be provided and available online; they should be. But the reality is many people still need face-to-face contact.

All we have had is silence from the minister despite the council's offer to accommodate these staff in their building in Dandenong. We challenged him to a coffee in Dandenong, not a boxing match, but he still has not shown up. We call on him to reconsider. (Time expired)