Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the release of the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System on 4 October 2023, which found:

(a) abuses of sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and other organised crime in Australia's immigration system;

(b) significant gaps and weaknesses in Australia's visa system; and

(c) criminals routinely abusing Australia's visa system;

(2) notes that the problems identified in the report are systemic and will take time to fix, but commends the Government's commitment not to turn a blind eye to the exploitation of Australia's visa system by:

(a) increasing resourcing by $50 million;

(b) establishing a new division within the Department of Home Affairs to re-prioritise immigration compliance and protect the integrity of the visa and migration system;

(c) strengthening fit and proper person assessments for registered migration agents (RMAs);

(d) improving the ability of the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority (OMARA) to sanction unscrupulous RMAs;

(e) providing a stronger framework for the OMARA to address criminality in the migration advice industry; and

(f) increasing financial penalties for providing unlawful immigration assistance; and

(3) condemns the Leader of the Opposition for overseeing a migration system that was used to facilitate some of the worst crimes in our society.

The community I represent is a mosaic of cultures, backgrounds and stories. It's a community that reflects what makes Australia great. It's full of diversity and displays a distinct Australian multiculturalism. Every street in my electorate has benefited from the contributions of migrants who chose Bennelong and Australia as their home.

In this dynamic and multicultural community, our nation's migration system reverberates far beyond the discussions in this chamber and the words written in legislation and regulation. Our migration system changes lives. It impacts our neighbours, our friends and our family members. Sixty-six per cent of my electorate had one or both parents born overseas. Migration matters to modern Australia, and we know that a broken migration system impacts upon electorates like mine the most.

The revelations uncovered by the Nixon review into migration are as confronting as they are infuriating. Our migration system should never operate like it did ever again. The Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System paints a stark picture of a broken immigration system, a system that was left to rot by the Leader of the Opposition in his former role as Minister for Home Affairs. The review revealed a deeply flawed system that allowed criminal gangs from around the world to exploit vulnerabilities in the system for their benefit and, tragically, at the expense of genuine migrants who would have otherwise reunited with their families or filled much-needed skills shortages. When Labor came to government, there were nearly one million visas waiting to be processed. The department had been deliberately neglected, understaffed and ignored. Nearly one million visitors, students and skilled workers were left in limbo waiting for the word that they'll be reunited with their families. Families left apart, businesses short of skilled workers, humanitarian visas piling up—this was a byproduct of the neglect of the Leader of the Opposition.

Under his administration, the system wasn't geared for the people; instead, it was geared for criminals. As the report identified, criminals exposed grotesque abuses of our migration system. Grotesque. The gravity of this situation cannot be overstated. We had a system that allowed rings of women to be caught in sexual slavery within our own country, a system that essentially designated migrant worker exploitation as a feature rather than a flaw and a system that turned a blind eye to the systemic breakdown of immigration compliance and genuine visa processing. All of this occurred under the Leader of the Opposition's watch when he was then Minister for Home Affairs. The member for Dickson stood up in this place for the last decade, beating his chest about being tough on borders. He'd then go on talkback radio and portray himself as a border patrol cop on the beat, a tough guy on immigration, boasting that he was keeping Australia safe from illegal arrivals. Yet now we know that all he did was oversee a system that was falling apart. Under his watch, there was nearly a 50 per cent reduction in the number of compliance officers in the nine years to 2022-23. Under his watch, criminals were left to abuse Australia's visa system. Under his watch, criminals exploited the most vulnerable. The migration system was used to facilitate some of the worst crimes in our society against those who needed our support and protection the most.

Yet, unlike him, the minister and the government will not turn a blind eye to the exploitation and negligence of people and will not turn a blind eye to genuine people who want to call Australia home. While these problems are systemic and will take time to fix, the government's response to the Nixon review demonstrates our commitment to cleaning up a mess left by the Leader of the Opposition. Australians deserve a migration system that works for them—one that is fair, one that prioritises skill migration, one that brings families together. We deserve a migration system that serves our national interests, not the interests of criminals. This review will also enable the government to weed out the cowboys in the migration industry, one that is long overdue. I commend the motion to the House.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I must say I feel a bit for the member for Bennelong being sent in to do this today, because politics don't work when it comes to immigration; outcomes and results do. The fact that he is in here putting this motion today, when we've just found out this morning that 80 people have been released into the community who have failed the character test and have serious criminal convictions, and the government has been caught flat-footed and has no response as to how they're going to keep the community safe, just shows you how inept this government is. They had months to plan for this potential outcome, and they have sat on their hands and done nothing. As a matter of fact, they've been focused on everything else rather than keeping the community safe.

The Australian people want to know the answers for how they're going to be kept safe following this High Court decision. What action is the government taking to make sure that the release of these 80 individuals means that the community will be safe? We've read over the weekend in the paper that 30 of them were just sent to a hotel in the suburbs of Perth and no protections have been put in place. They don't know themselves what visas they're going to be put on. It seems that the Western Australia Police were not informed that this was happening. We now know that another 50 have been released into the community. There is no transparency whatsoever from this government as to what they are doing. Immigration is a mess under this government, and the mess continues to grow and grow.

Let's have a look at what else has happened. We found out also—and, once again, there was no transparency—that, in September, 11 illegal maritime arrivals were sent to Nauru.

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

Eleven?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Eleven! That's the first time in nine years that we've had to send IMOs to Nauru. Labor seems to take some sort of perverse delight in sending children to Nauru. Once again, it will be this government that has to clean up this mess.

Let's look at the Nixon review, which is the rapid review that the government sat on for over six months. Let's just see what has happened when it comes to arrivals by plane under this government. According to the latest data, 25,887 plane arrivals have now sought asylum under Labor. September was the second month in a row that more than 2,000 asylum seekers have lodged a claim for protection under Labor. The number of failed asylum seekers awaiting deportation has grown to 75,862. Meanwhile, just 17 failed asylum seekers left the country in September. Labor have deported just 184 failed asylum seekers since they won the election. And this statistic is incredibly important: 11,242 asylum seekers lodged an asylum claim between the government receiving the Nixon review and announcing a response seven months later. That's right: the government has been going on about the need for urgent action, condemning the Leader of the Opposition et cetera, yet they sat on this rapid review for seven months and did nothing with it. That's how important they saw the review as being—seven months, and not a response. They didn't even release it when they got it.

Then, to embarrass the government, the report was released by the media. Even though it had been sitting there for six months on the website of one of our media organisations, the government still wouldn't say whether that was or wasn't the review or when they were going to release it. While that was taking place, we've seen more asylum seekers come by plane and we've seen the government fail to deport those who have failed their claims. This is what the minister said:

You have … two ministers—

O'Neil and Giles—

that are acutely aware of the very significant responsibility we have for managing this system properly.

…   …   …

At the end of the day, our names are on the door. We're accountable to the Australian people …

If the ministers are accountable, get accountable for the 80 people who were released over the weekend and make sure you're keeping the community safe. Get on top of those plane arrivals, and get on top of the illegal maritime arrivals.

Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the end of 2014, Binjun Xie entered Australia on a student visa. He was to become known as 'The Hammer' because of his criminal activity. That year saw the transition of the immigration portfolio from the member for Cook to the now Leader of the Opposition. During Binjun Xie's nine years in this country, he established a sprawling underground network for people trafficking and prostitution. Some of those activities happened in Burwood in my electorate of Reid. Binjun Xie got rich by committing the most deplorable acts and exploiting vulnerable women. The extraordinary thing about this individual is that this was not the first time he'd engaged in this sort of criminal activity. Binjun Xie was jailed for five years in the UK for doing the exact same thing there. So let that sink in to the minds of those opposite. He was jailed for five years in the UK, deported back to China and then permitted to enter Australia to commit those crimes. The reality is that Binjun Xietook advantage of an immigration system which those opposite had allowed to wither. However, Binjun Xie's case was not an isolated incident. The reality was: our immigration system was being exploited by criminal gangs and dodgy migration agents.

In light of these revelations, the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, established the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System, run by Christine Nixon. The review uncovered details of the gaps and weaknesses in Australia's visa system that the coalition had left for us. It allowed abuses of sexual exploitation, migrant worker exploitation, human trafficking and other organised crimes. The weaknesses and gaps in our migration system were enabling the worst crimes known to humanity to occur in our country—gaps that people like Binjun Xie exploited. The coalition presided over a systemic failure in our immigration compliance system, and the Nixon review revealed that staffing cuts to the home affairs department, started by the former coalition government, undermined effective compliance. The then immigration minister, and now Leader of the Opposition, has been revealed as the great fraud that he is, because we know that, while the Leader of the Opposition talked a big game on immigration, he oversaw the fundamental underresourcing of the entire system. It was under his watch that criminals like Binjun Xie were allowed to bounce between the UK and Australia, committing some of the most vile crimes against vulnerable people in our community.

We are making concerted efforts to clean up the mess from those opposite—firstly, through resourcing. The Department of Home Affairs will receive an additional $50 million to establish a new immigration compliance division. This division will enhance immigration compliance and safeguard the integrity of the visa and migration system. Secondly, we will strengthen regulations around the conduct of migration agents. We will enhance the assessment of registered migration agents to ensure they meet stringent fit-and-proper-person criteria. We are also making it easier to penalise migration agents who are acting unethically, by strengthening the Migration Agents Registration Authority and raising the financial penalties for agents offering illegal assistance.

The immigration system we inherited from the coalition is a mess. It is burdened by complexity. It incentivises temporary visas, making it difficult for anyone wanting to build a life here. Even the most basic function of compliance requires an overhaul. We've started cleaning up the mess left behind by those opposite—including deporting Binjun Xie in October this year, so he can no longer exploit vulnerable women. While I am relieved that he is no longer able to commit his heinous crimes in this country, I am sad and angry that he was allowed into this country in the first place. I'm sorry to all those women who have been hurt by his actions. I'm sorry to the Australian public. They deserve an immigration system that is in our country's national interests.

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

With all due respect to the member for Reid, we can all pick out isolated examples of situations where, yes, things could have been better, absolutely. But to then, from that example, paint a broadbrush picture of the immigration system under the previous government—a government in a parliament which you did not sit in—and then to say, by reading points straight from the Labor dirt unit, that all was unwell whilst the coalition was in government, is a step too far.

This is coming from a side of politics that let in hundreds of boats and thousands of illegal arrivals. Many, many people died at sea under the policies of those opposite when they were in government. To suggest, for one moment, that the immigration system was in any way inadequate when we were in power is just preposterous, quite frankly. To the Labor dirt unit, if you're listening out there whilst you're typing up your stupid notes: you ought to realise that we did a lot of good whilst we were in power. We, in fact, fixed up the mess that Labor left behind—not, as is being put now, the other way around.

Now, I'm speaking on behalf of the member for Mallee, who can't be here because she is unwell. But in her role as deputy chair of the current inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, it has become clear to her that the current immigration settings are not sufficient, she tells me, to supply the skilled and unskilled workforce we absolutely require—particularly in the regions. I know those regions aren't familiar to a lot of those opposite. They have this city-centric view of the world which doesn't cover the country areas, which are absolutely essential to the economic wellbeing of this nation and which are all-too-forgotten by those opposite.

Under Labor, new data has revealed that the number of foreign student visas hit nearly 370,000 last financial year, which was 52 per cent higher than the record set in 2019. And 660,000 international students were either in Australia or ready to come—an all-time high. We want those students, but let's not forget that we have a crisis in this country to do with housing. We've got a crisis where we can't actually keep pace with the stock required. And then we have state Labor governments who want to shut down forestry and housing ministers who say, 'What's timber got to do with building houses?' Note to the housing minister: that's what we build houses from—timber. We have this situation with housing, and it is a crisis.

There's also a crisis with jobs; at the moment we just can't fill the vacancies—in particular, in regional Australia. In relation to agriculture, it is deeply regrettable that the Labor government has changed the rules around the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme—the PALM scheme—requiring employers to offer a minimum of 30 hours a week, per week, to eligible migrant workers, because many providers of jobs are walking away from the PALM scheme. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that Labor discontinued the Australian Agriculture Visa Program initiated by the Nationals and established by the former coalition government to address workforce shortages in the sector. This is just so, so sad.

Worse still, Labor increased the temporary skilled migration income threshold from $53,900 to $70,000 from 1 July. We want to reward skilled migrants for the benefit they bring to the community and, coming from the Riverina, no-one knows this more than I do. We're a very multicultural place. Indeed, I would like to think that we're almost the cradle of multiculturalism in Australia. On Australia Day, many of my communities proudly fly more than 100 flags. In my hometown of Wagga Wagga, well in excess of 100 different nationalities reside in the city. They contribute to the city and contribute to Australia, and this is just fantastic.

But many regional businesses in agriculture and tourism, just for example, are only busy enough to take on skilled migrants at harvest time or during the high season. For them, meeting the $70,000 annual threshold is nigh on impossible, leaving them unable to employ migrant workers. So we need to look at these things; Labor needs to look at these things. They remind me a little bit of the dog that chased the car, got the car and then didn't know what to do with it. That is Labor on immigration, that is Labor on employment and that is Labor on the economy. That is Labor, full stop.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Australia was formed, about 90 per cent of Australians were born here. Today, over 50 per cent of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. Things change quickly. The original Department of Immigration was established in 1945. Its mission back then was nation-building and administering Australia's migration program—attracting the best and the brightest to make our nation a competitive global powerhouse, both economically and socially.

This great department operated a successful service for decades, overseeing the successful settlement of many, many migrants. Immigration lurched down the road to demise back in 2013, when the member for Cook became the immigration minister and approved the integration of immigration with Customs and the creation of the Australian Border Force. The complete takeover occurred under the current opposition leader's leadership, after he became the minister at the end of 2014. In 2017, after 72 years, the word 'immigration' was dropped from the department's title and the department was sucked into the vortex of Home Affairs.

Here's a list of hits the coalition accomplished during their time overseeing this proud department. They refused to give staff a wage increase for six years. They shut down visa processing functions at approximately six overseas offices. They outsourced contact centres in Australia and overseas. They gutted client services in each state, including shutting down face-to-face immigration services from anywhere north of Brisbane. They cut visa processing staff by a third between 2015 and 2022, as onshore protections claims went through the roof. They halved the immigration compliance team, and they tried to privatise Australia's visa processing system to sell it off to the highest bidder. So, while the former Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government were focused on making staff miserable, overworking them and even wanting to sell their jobs, our migration system was also enabling some of the worst crimes known to humanity under the coalition's watch.

Gaps and weaknesses in the immigration system allowed organised crime and unsavoury characters to thrive. The Nixon review, conducted by former police chief Ms Christine Nixon, found criminal syndicates exploited our visa system to facilitate human trafficking, modern slavery, illegal sex work, illicit drug importation and money laundering—something the former member for Moreton was endorsing, in fact. Temporary migrant workers were at such an elevated risk of being abused and exploited by their employers that it was almost a design feature of the immigration system. At a time of record skills shortages, the visa processing backlog surged to almost one million and protracted processing times ballooned, with some migrants waiting up to 2½ years, which has encouraged bad actors to lodge increasing numbers of non-genuine applications for protection, shifting resources away from authentic claims.

These failures stem from the previous coalition government's neglect of the home affairs department under the former immigration minister. There was a lack of care, attention and basic interest in one of the most important things the Australian government does. The opposition leader's greatest fraud is that, despite presenting himself as tough on borders, immigration compliance was deprioritised under the member for Dickson's watch. As I just mentioned, the coalition halved the immigration compliance team. These problems are systemic and will take time to fix, but, as our response to the Nixon review shows, we're acting to clean up the opposition leader's mess.

We're establishing a new immigration compliance division to reprioritise immigration compliance and protect the integrity of the visa and migration system. It will include new risk and integrity teams to target the organised abuse of immigration programs and protect vulnerable community members from exploitation. It will work to resolve the immigration status of those people whose onshore visa options have been exhausted and to improve protections for vulnerable migrants. We're also strengthening fit-and-proper-person assessments for registered migration agents and improving the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority's ability to sanction unscrupulous registered agents—those that milk the system and send their clients down the wrong path just for money. We're also increasing financial penalties for providing unlawful immigration assistance; I'm forever meeting with constituents who have been given bad advice by unscrupulous registered agents. These reforms will provide a stronger framework for the OMARA to address criminality in the migration advice industry.

The Albanese Labor government will not turn a blind eye to the exploitation of Australia's visa system, as occurred under the member for Cook and the member for Dickson. We need to get the balance right and look at our resources.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Migration is central to the story of Australia. As the daughter of a migrant, I know firsthand the contribution that migrants make to our wonderful and diverse society and the opportunities Australia can provide for those who come to our shores to work, study and live.

When migrants come to Australia, they expect a fair place to live and work. But too often they're subject to exploitation. We have heard shocking stories of trafficking, sexual exploitation, wage theft, bullying and assault. One of my constituents told me how she suffered such exploitation. She came to Australia on a training visa, working for an accounting firm. She worked for the firm for six months yet never received her full wages she was owed. Similarly, other trainees suffered. Her story is all too common.

Research by the Grattan Institute suggests that one in six migrants who recently arrived in Australia experience some form of exploitation at work. This is a terrible affliction for the individuals affected, but it also harms the vast majority of Australian businesses who are doing the right thing, and it damages Australia's ability to attract the workers we need for the economy to prosper. As well as being a place to live and work, Australia has for decades provided a home for people who have lost theirs because of wars, disasters and atrocities. But the Nixon review identified that the migration system has not been working for those with genuine claims for asylum. Because of inadequate resources and a process that lacks robustness and integrity, humanitarian pathways have been clogged up by people who are trying to game the system. The tragedy is that people with genuine claims, who are genuinely fleeing persecution, have been made to wait for years on end to have their cases assessed, forcing them to depend on charities and the community to make ends meet. Many others seeking asylum have also been denied the right to even a life in the community and, instead, have faced many months in detention.

Today, the average period for which the Australian government holds people in detention is a staggering 708 days, and 124 people in detention today have been detained for over five years. The sad truth is that our migration system has been exploited and politicised. We need to have an honest, compassionate conversation about migration, not further wedging based on fear of people overseas. Several of the measures identified by the Nixon review are welcome—in particular, the increase in resourcing for home affairs and the prioritisation of asylum claims. But this must not be the limit of reform, and there are real challenges that I do not believe the government is addressing. First, the new 'first in, first out' rule for asylum claims is great for those submitting new claims, but it leaves many of those with an existing claim waiting even longer. Especially given the current cost-of-living crisis and the difficult situation of many people seeking refugee status in this country, those whose circumstances suggest that they have a genuine protection claim must be better financially supported whilst their claim is processed.

Second, we must improve the integrity of our migration program in other areas, particularly in student visas. Australia offers international students generous rights to stay and work here after they graduate, and that is appropriate in many, many cases. These people make a huge contribution to Australia and often become permanent residents. But the Grattan Institute shows that, in some cases, we give false hope to thousands of graduates who will never gain permanent residency. This is adding to population pressures and threatens Australia's reputation as a destination for tertiary study. Indeed, only half of temporary graduates secure full-time employment, and most are working low-skilled jobs, earning less than $53,000 a year. In various reviews, the many examples of student visa holders who are not studying genuine programs and are not even attending their claimed course of study give further cause for concern.

Unfortunately, I think the federal government's policy is moving in the wrong direction in this area. The recent decision to allow many graduates to stay and work for even longer without any restrictions based on their ability to actually get a job in their area of study and their ability to support themselves over this period of time is going to lead to a doubling of the number of temporary graduate visa holders in Australia by 2030. It is a situation which is not in the interests of our economy or the graduates themselves and, again, sets unrealistic expectations about their ability to move to Australia permanently. I urge the government to give this issue further scrutiny.

Third, we need to get on with implementing the priority reforms to our skilled migration system. The government has set out a very positive direction of travel to create a more streamlined approach for businesses to employ skilled migrants. But we need to get on with implementing this.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.