Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition does not support this bill. The primary objection of the coalition is on the process that is attached to the allocation of the Pacific engagement visa, or PEV as it is now known. As coalition speakers have stated in the debate thus far on the Migration Amendment (Australia's Engagement in the Pacific and Other Measures) Bill 2023, which provides for a ballot mechanism or a lottery to be conducted in order to grant the pacific engagement visa, we don't believe permanent residency to Australia and, ultimately, citizenship that would follow should be decided by a lottery. Nevertheless, the Senate and the other place have now passed that bill, and the ballot mechanism will be attached to the Pacific engagement visa.

However, as an extension of our opposition to that bill, we'll oppose this bill, reflecting our strongly held view that permanent residency to Australia, which provides a pathway to citizenship, should not be determined by ballot or a lottery. Whilst PALM is an important program and has the strong support of the coalition—which in fact established PALM—the PEV is untested. There have been concerns expressed by some Pacific leaders about the impact of the PEV, particularly given it's a permanent visa. There are genuine concerns that it may ultimately lead to the permanent loss of population or brain drain. Importantly, there are also concerns that, as a consequence of that permanency, it may reduce remittances back to Pacific island nations. Remittances from PALM workers, of whom there are about 40,000 currently in Australia, have been important to sustaining whole communities across the Pacific. Remittances now form a big part of GDP and economic activity in PALM source countries.

We already know that this government has no inflation strategy. Indeed, under this government, Australia's inflation is now higher than in most advanced economies. Australians know this all too well. They know that, over the past more than 15 months under this government, the cost of food has gone up by 8.2 per cent, the cost of housing is up by 10.4 per cent, the cost of insurance is up by 17.4 per cent, the cost of electricity is up by 18.2 per cent and the cost of gas has gone up by 28 per cent. We know that the government has no budget strategy. The Albanese Labor government has delivered two budgets which could have included decisions to ease pressure on inflation, help take pressure off interest rates and help Australians. But Labor hasn't done that. Labor has in fact only added to inflationary pressure. We don't believe that Australian taxpayers should be facing the additional financial costs associated with this bill at a time when there are absolutely no signs of the government getting on top of the issue of most concern to Australians, which is the cost of living.