Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government doesn't support the motion moved by Senator Hanson. The 2022-23 increase in Australia's net overseas migration was driven by strong arrivals of temporary migrants, particularly international students, and by below-normal departures, as the former Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton mismanaged Australia's migration system, enabling exploitation and rorts. The government is determined to bring migration down, including by capping international student numbers. We are already doing the hard work. We have restored the immigration compliance function in Home Affairs, an area that the Leader of the Opposition cut by nearly 50 per cent. We have increased the temporary skilled migration income threshold from $53,900 to $70,000 to restrict the number of low-income workers entering the country. We have ended unlimited work hours for international students, launched a crackdown on rorts in international education, are cracking down on shonky providers and closing loopholes that were being used to bring nongenuine students into the country. We are implementing a $160 million reform package to restore integrity into the system and are introducing limits on international student numbers.

Yesterday, we saw the coalition team up with the Greens to block a bill to limit the number of people coming into the country. The bill deals with pretty serious corruption and integrity issues in international education. So why are the opposition opposing a crackdown on dodgy operators and unscrupulous agents? It just doesn't make any sense. The opposition is standing in the way of genuine reforms to fix a system that the Parkinson review found was so badly broken it would require a 10-year rebuild—10 years to rebuild—because it was left in such bad shape by those opposite. We are working to reduce migration through the means we have available, with the goal of bringing it to sustainable levels. For those in this chamber, if you cannot get on board with the cleanup, we suggest that you just get out of the way.