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

I will indeed explain. There are alternative policies that seek to focus on foreign workers. The meaning of ‘foreign worker’ is other people, not us. For a multicultural, immigrant country to talk about foreign workers instead of skilled migrants is to use a pejorative. It is in fact racist. This is the old Beirut, Bombay, Beijing attitude coming back—none of the Blackpool, Birmingham and Bristol. Nobody minds if you come from Blackpool or Birmingham or Bristol, but if you come from Bombay, Beijing or Beirut then you are in real trouble.