Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to continue my contribution to the Migration Amendment (Australia's Engagement in the Pacific and Other Measures) Bill and related bill. When I was last on my feet I was speaking about the fact that the bill as currently drafted entrenches discrimination against people with a disability in our migration laws. That is utterly unacceptable, requires urgent attention and I hope will be fixed as part of the passage of these amendments.

There have been many calls over many years for the exemption provided in the Disability Discrimination Act to be removed. As I mentioned in my previous contribution, this included from the United Nations, as recently as 2019, and from a then-Labor-chaired joint standing committee on migration into the migration treatment of disability.

I note that this has been a longstanding unacceptable form of discrimination against people with disability. Because of this government sanctioned discrimination, we're seeing many migrant families on temporary visas in our community, including many of whom who are on a pathway to permanent residency, at risk of deportation simply because they've either developed or incurred a disability or because a family member has a disability. Horrifyingly, this includes families with disabled children even when those children were born here. This is blatant and unconscionable discrimination, and it persists on our law books until otherwise changed.

I note that the Labor Party policy platform, a national platform, says:

People with disability have the same rights as all Australians and Labor believes that governments should help remove barriers to the full exercise of those rights to enable people with disability to participate fully in society and exercise full choice and control over their lives.

That sounds great to us. I love that that's in your platform. How about we see it in the legislation so that we can remove this vestige of discrimination against people with a disability?

In the bill's explanatory memorandum, it said to be eligible for one of these proposed visas that:

it is envisaged that a person will need to be citizen of a participating country and meet age requirements—

and,

have a written offer of employment in Australia and meet standard public interest criteria, including criteria relating to health and character.

It's with that last criteria that the issue emerges. This exemption, that's provided to the Migration Act and the regs by the Disability Discrimination Act, really takes us back to the bad old days when people with a disability were considered a burden on society and when the value contribution that they make to our nation was not properly recognised. I find it just mind-bending that people who live in Australia are protected from discrimination, yet, if you are a migrant or you are wishing to migrate, you can be told to leave or you can be denied entry if you or your child is disabled—you're deemed by the government to be a burden, and this is regardless of what you might be seeking to contribute to this nation. So it's desperately disappointing this amendment bill has been drafted in such a way, so far, that it doesn't seek to redress that discrimination.

This precise issue was recognised by the disability royal commission. I point out that recommendation 4.31 of the recently published report by the disability royal commission calls for a review of section 52 of the Disability Discrimination Act. It's with a view to inform reforms that would eliminate or minimise discrimination in our migration system and reflect our international human rights obligations. So we had the Labor chaired Joint Standing Committee on Migration in 2010 call this out, the UN in 2019 call this out and the disability royal commission point out that this discrimination is entrenched and remains on our law books. The government has made it clear that it's not willing to enact this reform—at least not so far—which is exactly why the Greens have been in good-faith negotiations with the government to scope some modest reforms that would seek to overcome this discrimination. I certainly hope those discussions are concluded in a manner that will allow that discrimination to be removed from our law books with pieces of amending legislation.

As I said at the outset, that's not the only concern we have with this legislation. We will also be seeking to amend the legislation to ensure that humanitarian visas are not subject to this proposed ballot process. That would be deeply inappropriate, as the UNHCR has already recognised. Also we desperately need climate action. If we were truly treating our Pacific neighbours with the respect that they deserve then we would stop approving new coal, oil and gas. It is flooding their food-producing lands. It is imperilling the very existence of some of those low-lying island nations. If we were genuinely treating our neighbours with respect then we would stop approving new coal, oil and gas. This legislation is entirely missing the point. We are demanding climate action. We stand alongside our Pacific neighbours to demand no new coal, oil and gas.