Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I'm not sure why those in the Greens would say that it's rubbish that we should have and should continue to have an immigration policy that is non-discriminatory, based on the principle of merit and based on the principles of ensuring that we continue to build the successful country that we are.

Senator Wong and others have spoken about their schooling experience. I reflect back on my years at high school, and the high school I attended was very much a melting-pot high school on the northern fringes of Adelaide, with second-generation Italian and Greek migrants and first-generation Vietnamese migrants working hard in the market gardens that exist to the north of Adelaide. They were ensuring that they were building better futures for their children, for their families. Today, those people I went to school with are in a whole range of occupations and professions. They are migrants who came to this country, were welcomed to this country and were given the opportunities of the education available in this country. They secured the opportunities of employment available in this country and are now in third- and fourth- and fifth-generation families that some are supporting—or second and third in the case of others.

I also reflect on the fact that, at the time that I was finishing school, I know that some of the debates at that stage, particularly around Asian migration, were wrongly reflected and played out in this place and elsewhere around the country. But the positive of that was that governments have ensured that they have continued, to this day, to apply non-discriminatory policies and that we now have such very successful, bigger communities from different Asian nations who've helped us to be stronger, 20-plus years later, than we were then. They have helped us to be better connected to our region and to be able to enjoy the opportunities that that stronger connectedness makes.

That's why we so strongly supported the statement of principles that was made, the clear statement that ensures that Australia continues to give unanimous, unqualified, unambiguous commitment to immigration intakes regardless of race, faith or ethnic origin and that we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder across this parliament in support of those principles.