Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

RYAN (—) (): I move:

That this House:

(1) celebrates:

(a) the close trans-Tasman relationship between Australia and New Zealand; and

(b) the contribution New Zealanders living in Australia have made to our country;

(2) notes that changes under the former Howard Liberal Government made it more difficult for New Zealanders living, working, and paying taxes in Australia to become citizens;

(3) further notes the announcement made on 22 April 2023 that will mean all Special Category Visa holders will be able to apply directly for citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, as long as they meet a four-year residence and other eligibility requirements; and

(4) commends the Government's commitment to build a fairer, better managed, and more inclusive migration system for New Zealanders living in Australia.

It is an absolute delight to stand in the chamber this evening to note the changes to the trans-Tasman relationship. There's been a close relationship between Australia and New Zealand dating back decades, obviously, but in my community our government's recent announcement that, from 1 July 2023, New Zealand citizens living in Australia will have a direct pathway to Australian citizenship is something we are all celebrating. Australia and New Zealand have a deep friendship, a special bond which has been forged through our history, shared values and common outlook, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the trans-Tasman travel arrangement, which brought Australia and New Zealand closer together by easing travel requirements between the two countries. It recognised the special bond we share.

New Zealanders in my community chose to come to Australia and raise their families. They're working and building their lives in Australia. Many have lived most of their lives in Australia. I know; I've taught their children. For over 30 years I have taught Kiwi kids in schools in my electorate, and I am absolutely celebrating this decision of our government—a government that has taken the steps to ensure that aspiration can exist inside Pacific Islander homes in my community, that children won't be locked out of higher education on the back of being unable to secure Australian citizenship, with families faced with the choice of sending children back to NZ for university, away from their siblings and families, their cousins and their community. This is an absolutely seminal moment of change for my community. They are absolutely thrilled at the prospect that they could do this.

I want to share this with the chamber. The member for Kennedy might be interested. Young Anya was a Julia Gillard Award recipient when she was in grade 6, and last year I met her at the end-of-school graduation ceremony at one of my local schools. She was school captain. I said to her, 'What are you planning next year?' She said, 'I'd love to go to Melbourne university, but I'm a Kiwi, so it might be really difficult.' I met with her parents a week later and said, 'Look; my office is going to look into any kind of scholarships we can find for Melbourne university that would allow your daughter to go.' The father looked at me and said to me: 'We knew that this was coming. We knew she was bright. She's our oldest. We knew she was headed somewhere special. We even looked at sending her home to NZ, but, Joanne, when push came to shove, I couldn't put her on a plane. I couldn't have her leave me. I couldn't have her leave her mother. I couldn't have her leave her siblings. And so we've stayed and we've taken the chance. We've saved and we've saved and we've saved, and we're hoping that she can go to university next year.' I met with her this week. No-one's more excited about the fact that, on 1 July, she can apply for Australian citizenship and she will be able to get HECS, which will ensure the fact that she can stay. She's going to make a great contribution to this country. Her parents have made a great contribution to this country.

Who can forget the reason we're celebrating so loudly? We go to the dawn service in my community locally and we sing both the Australian and the New Zealand national anthems, and our New Zealanders attend that dawn service every year because they know this shared history. During the pandemic, they were pretty much told by the previous government that they could return to New Zealand. No support was put on the ground. Families in my community were setting up pantries on the front lawn to feed one another—families whose only income during the pandemic was their 17-year-old or 16-year-old child working at McDonald's, because the adults didn't have work to go to. Those families did it tough in the pandemic. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than giving them the opportunity to become Australian citizens where they choose to take it up.

I look forward to what I know will be thousands of people in my community who will become great new Australian citizens given this opportunity by government. I can't imagine why it's taken 50 years. I will never understand why John Howard made it more difficult for New Zealanders to become Australian citizens. It never made sense. This government has undone it, and my community, for one, is celebrating.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For someone who's so happy, she seems to be very unhappy and very angry. But, anyway, I digress. The government announced the changes to the visa arrangements for New Zealand citizens on 22 April. The coalition welcomes New Zealand citizens who have lived in Australia, contributed to our country, are of good character and want to become an Australian. Australia and New Zealand are a family. We often talk about our Anzac traditions that stem back to 1915, and so we should. Our citizens have fought and died together, side by side, defending our freedoms. We are bonded together by people, culture, business, sport and art. The coalition has the deepest respect for New Zealand and its people and welcomes people who are committed to Australian values and who respect our rights, liberties and laws. Australian citizenship is an incredible privilege, but with those privileges comes responsibilities. Those responsibilities are, just as those rights are, bestowed upon every single Australian and every single person that resides here.

The changes to the New Zealand visa arrangements have a large cost. That was revealed in the budget papers. This is all part of Labor's 'big Australia' policy. In true Labor style, they made this big flashy announcement, but they were very light on the detail. I'll come back to that in a moment. What we see out of this policy, consistent with what we've seen through the rest of the budget that was announced in the last sitting period, is that Australian working taxpayers get very little out of this budget. Essential Australian working taxpayers will, as a result of this policy, be paying more. They will be paying more to feed Labor's voracious welfare policies.

Providing permanent citizenship to 400,000 New Zealand citizens will increase payments from government services and benefits by $1.3 billion. This policy will cost Australian taxpayers $1.3 billion over five years from 2022-23. It will increase taxation receipts by $795 million over the same period. What this means is that there is a net fiscal cost of $500 million. That's half a billion dollars. This isn't just Andrew Wallace, the member for Fisher, saying this; this is from the budget papers.

As I said earlier, Labor's all about the big flashy announcement, not about the detail. Let's have a look at some of the questions that this policy raises. Will New Zealand citizens who accept the offer to become an Australian citizen be included as part of the permanent immigration number or will they be counted separately? This is the 1.5 million additional people that Labor want to bring into this country over five years. Will those 400,000 be part of that 1.5 million or will that 400,000 be on top of the 1.5 million people that Labor want to bring into this country? Will the New Zealand citizens replace much-needed highly skilled workers like nurses, teachers and engineers? If they do fill spaces within the immigration cap, what is the government going to do to address the impact on the housing and rental crisis, congestion and the environment with increased migration? This is coming from a government that has just put every single infrastructure project that hasn't had a shovel put in the ground on review for the next 90 days. We know what that means. That's Labor speak for cuts, cuts and more cuts—unless, of course, the money was going to a Labor held electorate. There are many more questions to be answered. I'm hoping that my friend the member for Riverina will pick them up.

Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In less than six weeks, New Zealanders will again have a direct pathway to Australian citizenship. It has been more than 20 years since the Howard government closed off that route with seemingly little thought of the longer-term ramifications. Even now, talk from the coalition about this long-overdue reform centres on the supposed financial costs. Dan Tehan says that, while he agrees in principle with the reforms, the opposition wants to know the costs of changing rules that have been in place for a long time. I'm reminded of the Oscar Wilde saying about those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I can tell you, from speaking to people in my community, what the cost of this policy has been: a generation of too many children, young people and teenagers who've been lost when it came to higher education, and a generation where too many skills were lost by this nation. That's a high economic price that this nation has already paid in lost productivity and more.

But let's look beyond the economics, beyond the dollars and cents. There were more personal and social costs arising from this policy—costs that affect this nation as a supposedly inclusive community: a generation of people who feel like second-class citizens, a generation of people who are actively discriminated against, a generation of people who feel that they don't belong and who don't have a stake in society. And we know what flows from that.

As pointed out by the committed advocates at West Justice, a community legal centre in my electorate, as noncitizens our friends from across the ditch could largely not access loans that would enable them to attend tertiary education, whether to go to university or to enrol in highly skilled TAFE courses. What a waste of talent, consigning these children to limited career options and a very uncertain future indeed. What a waste for our nation.

Imagine being a parent and sitting down with your teenager who is in year 9, which is when most students start to think about the elective subjects that will give them the best opportunity for a career and a fulfilling life. Imagine the conversation that follows, with parents explaining to their children that higher education simply isn't on the table for them. What do you think happens to that year 9 student—or to any person, for that matter—who has no pathway into higher education? Where is the motivation to study hard and to dream big when they know that the only future they can dream of is of limited employment options, regardless of how hard they study and regardless of how motivated they are?

For more than two decades we were happy to take the taxes these hardworking citizens paid but not to give them access to many of the rights that should flow from this. And it is not just access to the NDIS and many other social services but also—and I would say that in many ways this is more important—the feeling of belonging and that this is a nation that values their contribution. For years this nation has experienced a huge skills shortage. Is it any wonder, when we have not made the most of the talent that we have right here, living in our community—many individuals and many families who have lived here for very long periods of time? How many doctors, nurses, engineers, IT professionals, teachers and more have we not produced because of a discriminatory citizenship policy?

As Joe Nunweek, a lawyer with West Justice, pointed out, even for highly skilled people career pathways were often closed off because they were generally barred from working in Commonwealth jobs. But, more importantly, as Joe explains, these changes mean that New Zealanders living in this country will finally feel that much-needed sense of belonging to a nation, no longer feeling like second-class citizens. As the Prime Minister recently said, New Zealanders who are here in Australia paying taxes, contributing to the economy, should be treated with respect, and that's what this provision will do.

For far too long, New Zealanders who live, work and pay taxes in Australia have been left feeling permanently temporary. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement which brought Australia and New Zealand closer together by easing travel requirements between the two countries. What an apt time to reform our citizenship rules. I welcome the government's commitment to build a fairer and more inclusive migration system for New Zealanders living in Australia. I welcome the changes that better reflect the close relationship between our countries over decades.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a little bit perplexing that we've spent the day hearing about how dreadful the coalition government was in the nine years that we served from 2013 to 2022, but this takes the cake. Now Labor is paying out on the Howard Liberal government. If the Howard Liberal government was so bad with this particular policy, why didn't Labor fix it when it was in power from 2007 to 2013? I could take issue with some of the things that Chile-born Chris Watson and his government did in 1904, but I'm not about to. It's history. Let's look to the future. Let's leave the past where it is and let's build a better Australia—not necessarily a bigger Australia but a better Australia.

There are many questions which do need answering about this particular visa arrangement. Will New Zealand citizens who accept the offer to become Australian citizens be included as part of the permanent immigration number or counted separately? We know that Labor has this policy of a lottery-style system with Pacific immigration, and we haven't had this question answered. Will the New Zealand citizens replace much-needed highly skilled workers, such as teachers, nurses and engineers, if they do fill spaces within the immigration cap? What is the government going to do to address the impact on the housing crisis? We have a housing crisis, make no mistake. What will the impact be on the National Disability Insurance Scheme? The previous speaker mentioned this. Mind you, he wasn't in the government at the time, which left office without putting a cent towards this valuable scheme, the higher education loan program, social security or other government programs for the additional citizens.

How will Labor treat citizens who are convicted of crimes and would previously—quite correctly—have been subjected to deportation? When we were in government we refused or cancelled 10,206 visas under the character provision test of the Migration Act, for good reason: because we didn't want these sorts of people in our country. There were 335 who were outlaw motorcycle gang members—people we do not want in our country. We do not want them subjecting people to their harm, particularly our country's young people. Labor is already tracking to kick out just half the number of non-citizens who fail the character test. Why? It's a good question and it deserves an answer.

If this announcement is about a fair change, as Labor calls it, why will Australians wait five years to become New Zealand citizens but New Zealanders will wait only four years to become Australian citizens? What sort of deal did they do with the New Zealand government over this? The coalition supports a better Australia, as I said, but this situation is giving New Zealanders something that we can't get in return. Will the Labor government give New Zealanders who are not citizens a vote in Australian elections? The Prime Minister said that was being considered. Will they get a vote?

The changes to the New Zealand visa arrangements have a huge cost, and this is revealed in the budget papers. It's all part of Labor's Big Australia policy. Providing permanent citizenship to 400,000 New Zealand citizens will see increased payments for government services and benefits by—wait for it—$1.3 billion. That's $1.3 billion over five years from 2022-23 and increased receipts by $795 million over the same period. This is a cost to Australian taxpayers, who expected better in the budget. The reality fell far short of their expectations. Why did it fall far short? Because this is what you get under Labor.

They want to put more people on welfare. It doesn't matter where they come from, let's just get more people on welfare! Let's get more people who will vote for us, who will never contribute to the Commonwealth and who will never contribute to Australian society! They will kick out far less people than they should. We're all in favour of New Zealanders. We've heard the stories of the Anzac spirit, and no-one understands that like those who've served our nation. Yet, this is a great thing. But I tell you what: there are so many answers still to be given and still to be provided by this policy. We await, with bated breath perhaps, as to whether they will be answered. I doubt it. Don't hold your breath.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and a resumption of the debate will be made an order for the next sitting.