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

I think what the senator says is right. I will check the exact words, but I think the expectation of what has been said is correct. The department does plan to visit 25 per cent of the companies. That does not mean visa holders, because we might have one company that might have a few hundred. We are there at the courtesy of the employer. There is not a right of entry. My experience in this place, both on this side and that, is that whenever a minister wants to give a department right of entry into somebody’s home or workplace there is a tremendous civil liberties debate about who can bash down doors and just go in. But we can have that debate. If the opposition is suggesting that the immigration department should be given automatic right of entry to premises where 457 visa holders are expected to be working, I for one would welcome that. It would make life a lot easier. In terms of compliance, we all have to work within limitations—that is, what we want to achieve and what other people’s liberties and rights are. That is why the parliament has always been very cautious about giving officials and compliance officials who are not at the most senior levels in the department the capacity to just arrive at someone’s door and say, ‘Here I am,’ and disrupt their business.

I do remember an occasion when, as a new minister, I was advised in advance of a number of immigration raids that were going to happen. They were looking for unlawful noncitizens, but they would have also picked up any people who were there on 457 visas as a part of the process. It was about a particular restaurant in Sydney. There was a furore that the immigration department would dare to go to a restaurant that was trying to serve lunch. If you are looking for people who are unlawful noncitizens, you do not go there overnight when they are closed; you go when the workers are going to be there—that is, when people will be serving tables et cetera. So, Senator Ludwig, there is a balance to be found here, but if you are indicating on behalf of the Labor Party that the balance is going to shift in favour of compliance and more power will be given to the immigration department to force entry into places to get information, we would—