Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Employer Sanctions) Bill 2006. Perhaps I can start by saying that this is a bill that has been on the Notice Paper for some time. It is certainly long overdue—longer than you might imagine. This is an issue that had been raised and looked at by the government as far back as 1999. It has certainly taken the government a long time to get to this point.

It is worthwhile going back and looking at the review that brought forward this bill. That review was called the Review of illegal workers in Australia: Improving immigration compliance in the workplace. One of the major elements of that was the decision to pursue employer sanctions. The review found at that time—