Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise to talk about a bill around migration, one of the most important parts of our community and our society. As many of us know and talk about, the three key pillars of our Australian story and our Australian society are our Indigenous culture, our British heritage and democracy, and our migrant story. Like many Australians, my family came to Australia in the fifties—1953—and they settled in Silvan, which is in the electorate of Casey. They established a farm, and that farm, that establishment and that community have been a key to my journey here today and as a third-generation local. Many of us have a migrant story and I'll talk a little bit about the importance of making sure we get that right in a minute.

How we get our migrant balance right is so important from an economic perspective. It is crucial to fix the skill shortages that we face as a nation, exacerbated, no doubt, by COVID and the need to close the borders. It plays an important role in productivity. As we know, productivity is down over six per cent in the last 2½ years. The RBA monetary statement yesterday showed that they are now forecasting further productivity drops in the next 12 months. Getting skilled migration right can be a key pillar in driving productivity. It also plays a crucial role in economic growth. How we get the details of this legislation right is important.

There's also really important element to the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Sponsorship and Nomination Processes) Bill 2024 when it comes to social licence and making sure that the Australian people continue to support our migration program as we move forward. Every member of parliament has the amazing opportunity to attend citizenship ceremonies in their electorates to welcome new Australians. It is one of the most enjoyable parts of our roles as members of parliament, welcoming those new Australians as they celebrate becoming Australian citizens, many coming from different journeys. There are skilled migrants, refugees, family reunions—many stories, but the joy on their faces when they become new Australians is one of the highlights for all of us, no doubt. When I get the opportunity to talk and share my story with our new citizens, I talk about those three pillars of Australia. We're very lucky in the Yarra Ranges Shire to always have an amazing Welcome to Country from Julie Coombs. Julie does a fantastic job and the Indigenous story is an important part of our local community. Healesville has a strong Indigenous community through Coranderrk, which was an establishment more than 100 years ago, recognising the Indigenous people in Victoria and in Healesville. Julie gives a beautiful Welcome to Country to make sure we acknowledge that pillar of our society.

We as elected officials are there through the democratically elected process, recognising our British traditions, the importance of democracy and the role that we play. That third element is our migration story. As we all know, more than half of Australians have at least one parent born overseas. Those three pillars are so crucial, and when I talk to the new Australians and welcome them and share my family story about how anything is possible, I describe those three pillars as the Australian rope. The reason I describe it as a rope is the three individual strands by themselves have a level of strength, but when you bind those three strands together, that strength multiplies significantly. That is what we need to continue to do as an Australian community and in this House. Getting legislation like this right so we're bringing skilled migrants into the country to make a difference is an important part of keeping that strength together as a country.

When I look at this bill and I look at the impacts for my community, there are three specific areas that I want to talk about that impact the community of Casey directly: hospitality, farming and construction. As we know, there is a shortage of skilled workers in our country when it comes to construction. Housing prices have increased significantly and those skill shortages are exacerbating that. We need to continue to get that balance right and make sure we bring more tradies in to do the work.

My electorate, the electorate of Casey, is the No. 1 electorate in the country when it comes to trades as a percentage of the workforce, so we know how important trades are to our community. But every tradie that I talk to knows that the biggest challenges they have are trying to get new apprentices in but also finding workers to work with them. It's crucial that we understand that having skilled migrants coming in is not replacing Australian jobs; it's allowing the small-business owners in my electorate to create more opportunities and more jobs on which to work together.

The second area that is very relevant to my community of Casey is the beautiful Yarra Valley. The Yarra Valley is known for its farming but also its hospitality. I have spoken to many hospitality venues about the concerns they have about not being able to get access to the workers they need.

One of the particular skills that we need to allow for, through all our migration policies and our skills policies, is the specialisation around authentic cuisines. I have a wonderful restaurant chain with two venues, in Warburton and Belgrave, called Babajis. Billy and the team there do authentic South Indian cuisine. It's very unique—very different to what you would get at many other Indian restaurants. Billy and her team need to bring in specialised workers from the south of India to make sure that the food they create is authentic. Again, this is not taking jobs from Australians; it's creating more jobs. It allows her team to create that authentic product and to create jobs for waiters and for cleaners, for staff within the venue, and to buy food and produce from our local farmers as well.

So we need to have some flexibility within this list. We need to understand that regions have different concerns, but also that a catch-all around chefs does not necessarily capture the uniqueness of our culture or the uniqueness of different countries, with chefs creating authentic food in tribute to their region but also creating more opportunities within the local area.

I know that, for many of our farmers, getting access to workers is crucial as well. So we need to look at how the skilled occupation list will cater for different employment needs across regions. The needs of my electorate of Casey are different to many needs in the inner city and other areas. We need to have that included. And we always need to avoid a top-down approach. A localised approach will deliver the best outcomes for areas, whether in farming, hospitality or construction. They are the concerns of my community. We need to know how Jobs and Skills Australia will function to allow for those regional differences, because, as I said, what we are concerned about is different to an area in the inner city, as an example.

Creating the flexibility within the system will become crucial as well, because the shortage we have today will not be the shortage we have in six months or 12 months, particularly when we look at technology and the speed at which technology is moving. Whether it's AI or quantum or the AUKUS agreement and pillar 2, we see the importance of that technology. How are we going to ensure that Jobs and Skills Australia, and this legislation, these rules, will be dynamic and able to be adjusted as new opportunities come? When you're dealing with the tech sector, you're dealing with trends and opportunities that can develop almost overnight, and we need the ability to bring talent in, as a start-up looks to scale up—to bring software engineers in, so they can go from a start-up series A to a series B and series C, and, hopefully, become the next Canva or the next Afterpay of Australia: billion-dollar global companies.

Having that flexibility is important. We need to continue to look to those differences around technologies, around regional areas, and around farms and construction, in particular, given the shortages. So it's an important step that we're taking, but I hope we can always look to have that flexibility, for the needs of local areas and unique technologies.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table an addendum to the explanatory memorandum.

I want to thank all those members of parliament who contributed to this debate. This bill implements a commitment made by the government through the migration strategy to introduce a new temporary skilled worker visa, the skills-in-demand visa. The bill will legislate the income thresholds and index those thresholds for the specialist skills, core skills and proposed essential skills streams for the skills-in-demand visa, which is replacing the temporary skill-shortage visa.

The protection of Australian workers and their jobs and incomes is paramount for this government. That's why this bill legislates minimum income thresholds that will ensure persons nominated to work in Australia are less likely to be displacing an Australian worker and will be less vulnerable to exploitation, as the bill ensures that they receive fair remuneration. Legislated income thresholds will also ensure that persons nominated to work in Australia have adequate wages to support themselves and their families. Indexation of these wages ensures parity between migrants and Australian workers and that, over time, migrants are not paid less than Australian workers where they're performing the same role.

The bill also provides protections and oversight mechanisms through the establishment of a public register of approved sponsors. The register includes the name of the approved sponsor, their business postcode, the number of sponsored workers and their occupations. This will help temporary skilled migrant workers find a new sponsor and provide a resource to check that a sponsoring employer is legitimate.

The bill provides for annual indexation of the income thresholds for the specialist skills and core skills streams. This ensures that persons nominated for these streams have adequate wages to support themselves and their families whilst they're in Australia. Indexation of these wages ensures parity between migrants and Australian workers so that migrants will not be paid less than Australian workers where they are performing the same role. Proposed annual indexation of the income thresholds for the essential skills stream will be determined in each agreement or in accordance with the requirements prescribed in the amendment to the Migration Regulations.

Based on the feedback of businesses, the bill amends the Migration Act to provide that labour market testing will be completed within six months—and we're increasing that from four months—prior to the sponsor of a skilled migrant worker lodging a nomination. This change complements the removal of the requirement that we made in December 2023 for employers to advertise positions exclusively through Workforce Australia. The bill provides protections and oversight mechanisms through the establishment of a public register of approved sponsors. The development of a public register is important in ensuring transparency and accountability.

Temporary migrant workers make a valuable contribution not only to Australia's prosperity, fulfilling much-needed labour and skills where shortages exist, but also to our communities, our national identity and our connections across the world. This bill will ensure that persons nominated to work in Australia will be less likely to be displacing an Australian worker and will be less vulnerable to exploitation. It also ensures that persons nominated have adequate wages to support themselves and their families in Australia.

The bill delivers on the government's commitment to introduce a new temporary skilled worker visa to address critical skill shortages and better align the immigration system to the country's workforce needs. The bill is another important milestone in the government's reform agenda in migration policy, and I commend the bill to the chamber.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.