Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has had a long, rich history of migration from the Pacific. I've said before on matters of citizenship that New Zealanders are not foreigners—they're family. The same goes for our Pacific family. They are our neighbours, they are our friends and they are our people.

Some of our Pacific history isn't something to be proud of—in the 19th century tens of thousands of Pacific islanders were forced or tricked to come here and work on plantations in Queensland and build railroads—but we are proud of our history of fighting with the people of the Pacific. Pacific islanders fought with Australians in the Second World War. At a time when they were treated by many as second-class citizens, many worked alongside Australian soldiers—sometimes until they dropped. It is said that no living Australian was left behind, not even during heavy combat. The compassion of the Pacific islanders earned them the eternal gratitude of Australian soldiers and the nickname 'fuzzy wuzzy angels' became legendary.

When the 2022 floods hit Lismore, soldiers from the Republic of Fiji were here for a war exercise in the Coral Sea. They spent their first full day in Australia with the 8th/9th Battalion rebuilding an access road. Over the next few weeks the forces continued to support our defence forces fixing bridges, removing dangerous debris and generally assisting in the New South Wales clean-up.

It makes sense to enable faster migration for people from the Pacific. While we need to be careful that we don't steal their workers, we do need to streamline the migration process for those who wish to come here. A streamlined approach to migration from the Pacific will also enable a streamlined process for these people to citizenship. And guess what? Our citizenship will enable entry to the Australian Defence Force. Here in Australia we are struggling to fill our enlistment quotas, let alone keep people, so why not increase the pool of people the ADF can recruit from? Here's something novel: why not streamline the process even further for those Pacific islanders who want to join our Australian Defence Force and encourage them to do so? These people are our family. If they want to join the Australian Defence Force, we should do everything we can to make sure that happens. It shouldn't be that difficult. We know that it's difficult for Australians to join. It takes months and months. Seriously, if we could get this down pat, it would be really nice. I can only hope that we could lean on them, and the New Zealanders in the future, and have that very open invite for our Defence forces. Not just talking about it. I'm sick of the walk and talk here about our Defence forces working together, but actually having a revolving door. If you want to come here and serve our country, good for you. Your visa should be ticked off very quickly and you should be allowed in those boots. Because by God we need you.

We have Pacific islanders out there who are going to be climate refugees. Let's talk about that. Do you want to move them all at once? Let's get this on the board and talk about this, because this is what happening. This is what is real. At the same time we need to make sure they're safe. We have an amendment that the Jacqui Lambie Network will be putting up. That amendment is pretty simple. This whole lottery process—you can't be bloody serious, can you? Right now that 3,000 people—you should be reducing this to what you need in this country. What you need right now are carers out there. You need child carers and aged carers. We need them by the thousands. So while you're doing your lottery draw, just like I have spoken to Senator Wong last week, you need to reduce that. We need certain people. If you want to leave it to a lottery draw in the end, because you can only bring in 3,000—where does the number 3,000 come from? Because by God, we need a lot more than that in aged care. We need a lot more than that in child care. We need more than that out on our farms.

These Pacific islanders have proven themselves over and over again. They are reliable and trustworthy and they love Australia as much as we do. So where does your cap of 3,000 come from, for goodness sake? Isn't it better to start moving them now than to wait for their islands to start going under? I would have thought to start getting them settled here and make sure that they feel belonging here would be great unity for this country.

So I'm not sure about your lottery process. I'm happy to support this, but your number 3,000, I don't understand why it can't be more. Like I said, they are proven. I can't understand why we can't target where these jobs are going, because that is what it should look like. So if your lottery is not bringing that up and I can't get more about this whole lottery system, then we're probably going to have a problem with votes in here. But you're going to have to refine your lottery system. So I will leave that with you and I will allow you people to discuss that over the next 15 or 20 minutes or whenever you want to take the vote. But right now we're not keen.