David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Migration Amendment (Visa Application Charges) Regulations 2024, made under the Migration Act 1958, be disallowed [F2024L00790].

The Labor government is basically using multicultural diaspora communities in this country as cash cows. It is squeezing money from families trying to build a life here and from students trying to get an education, only to turn around and slap them in the face. If you reduce the people who come to Australia and build their lives and communities here to a dollar figure, they become expendable and then they become dehumanised and then it's a pathway towards breakdown in social cohesion. But that's what Labor is doing—gouging hundreds of millions of dollars more from people seeking a better life in Australia than from multinational fossil fuel corporations that export our wealth and drive climate chaos.

Last year the Labor government took some $3.3 billion in visa fees, and they're predicting, in the budget papers, that that will ramp up to $4.4 billion by 2027-28. That is $4.4 billion from people seeking to come here to be part of a family or to perform work. That is $4.4 billion from multicultural communities. And how much are they taking through the major bank levy? $1.6 billion. How much is Labor taking through the luxury car tax? $1.3 billion. How much through the petroleum resource rent tax? $1.1 billion. Vastly more is being gouged out of multicultural Australia through these visa fee increases than through those three tax streams combined.

People trying to get their parents a visa to Australia can pay over $40,000 in fees to bring mum and dad over, to complete the family. Some of the waiting lists and times are disgraceful. It can take 10, 20 or sometimes 30 years to bring your parents to the country. It's a tragic reality for many families that their parents die on the waiting list before they can be brought to this country—and they've paid tens and tens of thousands of dollars for it. That's Labor's approach to visas and immigration. It is a disgraceful, disrespectful policy.

In that regard, Labor is continuing with almost exactly the policy settings given to them by the coalition. I don't want to let the coalition off the hook. The coalition created this horrible, dehumanising mess with the price gouging of multicultural communities. But the real tragedy here is Labor has come in and doubled down on it. The reason we're bringing forward this disallowance motion is Labor has ramped up so many visa fees. The worst of it is the extraordinary fee increases they're proposing for students; my colleague Senator Faruqi will deal with that in detail, as she has publicly. She has proudly made the case against those appalling attacks from the Albanese government.

Let me repeat: if you are trying to get an aged-parent visa—that is the visa you specifically get when your mum and dad are in their last years and you're trying to look after them and they may not have support in the country they're currently living in; the bulk of their family may be here. For brothers and sisters who come together to bring their parents to the country for their last few years, it costs tens of thousands of dollars and they face waiting times that, we're told in answers to questions on notice, are in the order of 29 years. That's not a humane system. That's not a human system. That's a brutal price gouge from multicultural Australia. You would have thought the extremely high fees that this government is gouging from migrant communities would help with the processing, the numbers and the times, but you'd be wrong.

Since 2020-21, the number of staff has barely moved and people are being charged more. There are no additional staff and the timeframes are extending. It's like a double whammy, a double insult, to multicultural Australia. The government has said that, apart from the massive increases in student fees, 'Don't worry, the rest of these changes only match CPI.' We've run the calculator over these numbers, and that's plainly untrue. This Labor government is putting above-CPI increases on visa charges like for the orphan relative visa—to bring out an orphaned child. With these changes, the cost of that visa has gone well above the CPI increase.

What government wants to profit from orphaned children? Answer: the Albanese government. Even the explanatory memorandum from this department is not true and can't be trusted. I ask again: what government wants to price-gouge off orphaned children? I give you the answer again. The Albanese Labor government is doing that. Is there any wonder we're moving to disallow these regulations?

I look forward to seeing how the government justifies this attack on something that's so important to a successful multicultural community—the ability for families to be brought together in this country. It's a genuine pathway for Mum and Dad to come here and complete the family or to bring that child that doesn't have parents anymore into an extended family to get the love and support that they need. Please explain how you justify the price gouging of these families and these communities. Please tell us why this is right, because I can't understand it and I know that the communities I'm out talking to in my home state—in places like Western Sydney—and around this country, can't understand it. They see the delays, the fees, the costs, the disrespect and the way in which they never get an answer from the department. Their application goes in. It could have gone in last century and they still wouldn't be getting answers. Their emails are not returned. Their phone calls aren't answered. There's no-one to talk to. Please explain how that works.

I commend the motion to the chamber and I commend the spirit of multiculturalism to the Labor government. It's not just about turning up at a festival and eating some novel food; it's about actually listening to what multicultural communities are saying. Listen to what families are telling you and answer with some decency and humanity. Don't gouge more out of these communities than you do out of resource giants or the luxury car tax. Be a government with a human face.