Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for the question. His state of Western Australia is a very strong user of the temporary skilled migration program. Australia, as we all understand, is in the middle of an economic boom, and that is good news, but unfortunately it does lead to skills shortages. Labor’s approach to these circumstances would be to simply run this boom into the ground, as they have done with every boom that has ever come to Australia when they have been in office.

We all remember that five lousy minutes of economic sunshine generated by the Keating government’s management of the economy. In contrast, this government has produced conditions that have enabled a long-term boom that we are all enjoying. The business long stay visa allows businesses to get people in with the skills they need to make the most of those conditions—not just to survive but to grow and expand while things are going well.

The union movement and individual unions have embarked on a campaign of attacking this particular visa. The shadow immigration spokesperson has gone out and done a bit of dog-whistling by saying, ‘Why are we bringing people from Beijing, Bombay and Beirut?’ If he were up to date, he would say, ‘Manchester, Mumbai, Memphis and Muizenberg.’ That is what he would really say, because the truth of the matter is that 26 per cent of the people who come in under these visas come from the United Kingdom, 10 per cent come from India, six per cent come from the United States, six per cent from South Africa, and so it goes on. So the proper course of action was to mention Manchester, Mumbai, Memphis and Muizenberg. But the shadow spokesperson did not do that, because he was engaging in xenophobic dog-whistling.

There are very positive outcomes from this program. I have been told of a meatworks that, for example, is able to maintain two shifts running. Without being able to maintain those two shifts running, they would have had to lay off Australian workers.