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

My question is to the Prime Minister. In Labor's cruel hoax of a budget, 1.8 million new arrivals are predicted to live in Australia over a five-year period. Can the Prime Minister guarantee that this number won't go beyond two million?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. No. The member for Fadden will leave the chamber under 94(a)—

and the member for Braddon will stop dobbing on people!

The member for Fadden then left the chamber.

There's far too much noise. Members are entitled to ask their question in silence. I don't know why everyone thinks it's appropriate to interject, but the same rules apply today as on every other day.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The guarantee's simple—only a Labor government can return immigration to sustainable levels. That is absolutely—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The laughter is loudest from the man who went the other direction in the strongest possible way. To get immigration back to sustainable levels, we had to first make sure that we were restoring integrity to the system. Let's not forget the way integrity was taken from the system under those opposite. Let's not forget what was said and what came out—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're going to hear from the member for Wannon on a point of order.

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

It was a very direct question. It didn't go to alternatives at all. It asked for a guarantee that it wouldn't go beyond two million. It didn't ask about anything in the past. It was a very direct question. Guarantee that it won't go beyond two million.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What you need to do is state the point of order on relevance, which I understand. The minister was asked a specific question on a specific topic. You probably want a yes or no answer, right? So I'll say the same thing I've said many, many times: under the standing orders, I can't direct the minister to do that. It would be a lot easier for me if I could, trust me, but he's entitled to talk about the policy in terms of being directly relevant about perhaps the guarantee and why it's possible or not possible—I don't know what he's going to say. He'll just need to make clear the context in which he's talking about the topic, and I'm not sure where he's going with this, but he is being directly relevant because he's talking about—if he started talking about something else, I'd bring him back in line.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To deal with net overseas migration, which your question asks about, you have to go to the components of net overseas migration. The area that had the biggest growth was international students. For net overseas migration, the 31 per cent reduction that we've had year on year in the most recent figures is a direct reflection of the fact that this government has taken action on the unlimited nature of how international student visas were put in place. When it was actually put to the parliament—whether that should be fixed—those opposite, including the shadow minister who just asked the question, didn't amend the bill to say that maybe it should be a different number. They actually voted for student visas to be unlimited in Australia. That's their position, and then they want to get up and ask about what will happen with respect to net overseas migration.

There is a gap from a previous speech that Leader of the Opposition gave where he claimed a number as to how low he would get net overseas migration. He's made a couple of announcements to it, but he's actually still 220,000 places short. If you reduced the student visa system to zero, you still would not fix that gap. And it's not surprising that those opposite have no idea about how to run a system that is sustainable with integrity.

Let's have a look at what was said, in terms of the Richardson review, about how the Leader of the Opposition ran immigration. It said, 'A company whose owners were suspected, through the ownership of another company, of seeking to circumvent US sanctions against Iran had extensive suspicious money movements suggesting money laundering, bribery and other criminal activity.' Those opposite ran a system in complete disrepair. The only visa that they've said they will now act on is to bring back the one known as 'cash for visas', where you qualify for a visa to Australia on the basis that you've got cash and that's it.