Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, the law discriminates against so many in the disability community, including those with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism and people who are non-verbal. For many of these people, in recent years there has, after a long and gruelling battle with the system, been ultimately good news—that the processes that they have been through have ended up in them being able to stay in Australia. But nothing—no stroke of a ministerial pen finally putting an end to such an ordeal—makes up for the stress, the worry, the pain that is caused by that ordeal, a pain and stress and worry which we can lift off the shoulders of so many by passing this amendment. The fate of a family should no longer be left to the minister of the day's discretionary powers allowing them to grant or deny a visa on a case-by-case basis.

There is also a need for an inquiry in this space. While our amendments go some way to address the ableism in the migration system, we know that there is much more that needs to be done. It's not lost on me today that this day is the first sitting day since the handing down of the final report and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. They have recommended clearly, in recommendation 4.31, changing the law in relation to disability discrimination and a need for an inquiry into this space. I quote directly:

a. The Australian Government should initiate a review of the operation of section 52 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), insofar as it authorises discrimination against people with disability seeking to enter Australia temporarily or permanently. The review should consider changes to the legislation and migration practices to eliminate or minimise the discrimination.

b. The review should be conducted with particular reference to the rights recognised by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities …

Our amendment would allow the chamber to implement recommendation 4.31 of the commission today. Let us act with urgency in relation to this issue. Our amendment would establish a statutory review of the migration health requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act, the Migration Act, the Migration Regulations 1994 and related matters. It is imperative that this review is conducted with public consultation and that it commences before 1 July 2024.

The review will be key in amending the public interest criteria. These criteria are built on a series of ableist assumptions, treating disabled people as a burden on society. In this country, we have criteria for immigration that treat disabled people as a burden. The continuing existence of these criteria is a shame on the government of the day. The criteria require children born in Australia or disabled people wanting to migrate to stay below a figure threshold based on how much the government thinks they will cost society. The current public interest criteria threshold of $51,000 over 10 years is remarkably low compared to comparable countries such as New Zealand and Canada. It is time to abolish this threshold and the discriminatory assumptions that go into it. It's practically impossible to stay below the threshold when the government assumes that disabled people will exist in publicly-funded segregated settings and makes zero effort to recognise the positive impact that disabled people make in our society.

It is time for the Australian Labor government and Minister Andrew Giles to end ableism, support the existence of disabled people in our community and update the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure the disabled people born here and disabled people who want to come to Australia are able to.