Annette Hurley (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The annual report of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs is particularly of interest to me in my shadow portfolio area. This area has been of particular importance in the last year because we have seen a number of changes in citizenship rules, in the setting up of bodies to deal with harmony and now a government discussion paper that is entitled ‘Measures to improve settlement outcomes for humanitarian entrants’.

This annual report talks about settlement—though there is not a great deal about settlement, I have to admit, on which the government spends nearly $50 million a year—but there is no indication in this publication that there are any problems with the settlement services. The report merely states how many people have been assisted and that surveys of the outcomes of the contract have shown people are happy with the outcomes. Yet, in the discussion paper put out by the government, there is a proposal to have another complex case support network imposed over the top of the settlement support service that already exists—the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy.

This is a scheme that the government only introduced in October last year. It resulted in a lot of criticism because some of the successful tenderers had had no experience whatsoever in refugee and humanitarian entry assistance. The member for Newcastle, Ms Sharon Grierson, voiced a lot of concerns of refugees in Newcastle that were largely ignored by the department. In fact, it was later revealed that the New South Wales office of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs was taking those complaints and not passing them on to central administration. Subsequently, I raised a number of issues about the failures of care of the IHSS and the government denied that there was any such problem. It would not institute an inquiry despite several calls and a motion in this place for that inquiry. Indeed, the private contractor for IHSS in New South Wales, ACL, instituted its own private inquiry, the result of which—surprise, surprise!—was that it was completely exonerated of any wrongdoing. Yet now we have the government producing this document which proposes that there be another network imposed on top of IHSS to deal with complex cases. It proposes that key functions would include specialised case management assistance, support and assistance to clients in crisis situations and better integration of services for refugees and other humanitarian entrants.

Also, recently the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Mr Andrew Robb, suggested another proposal—that there be a Job Network service for refugees. Again, the tenderers for IHSS were supposed to provide those links to the Job Network. So, rather than admitting that it has made a failure of the tender process and perhaps chosen the wrong tender specifications or the wrong tenderers for the job—rather than fixing up its $50 million program—the government has proposed that it create another service to rescue the settlement support services.

This admission of failure, but with a plan to, presumably, spend another bucket of money on setting up another service in this area, just indicates that the minister has not been on top of this issue. The parliamentary secretary coming in to aid her in this area has not been of much greater assistance. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine what will happen. Will refugees go to one network and, if that fails, go to the IHSS? It just creates further layers of services, all with promises to integrate well with each other.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs annual report is one I would recommend that people read. It is an area that gets a lot of political and public debate, usually only around very select components of the immigration area. It is actually quite an enormous area that covers a whole range of activity. As I have mentioned in this place before, I think there is a lack of awareness of just how many people come into Australia each year on various forms of residency visa. The net numbers of permanent and long-term migrants are at very significantly high levels currently in Australia—there were 110,000 in 2004-05, and estimates are up further again. But, when you add on top of that the number of other people coming in on long-term temporary residency visas, it is in the hundreds of thousands of people each year. That means a lot of decisions are being made each year, for starters. Therefore it is very important to be as effective and efficient as possible and get those decisions right and make them promptly. Long delays in determining applications are a significant problem, particularly for people coming in for temporary residency purposes or on special-purpose visits. That is an area where we can always do better.

I note a discussion paper has just been released in the area of settlement services, which the previous speaker touched on. This, again, is a very important area that does not get as much attention as it merits, purely from a public interest and public policy point of view. As I mentioned, clearly there are very large numbers of people now coming here each year on residency visas, including some on long-term temporary visas, but many of those then become permanent. I think we can do better at identifying people when they first come here for residency purposes and assisting them at that time with integration and settlement in the broader sense of the word. Even if they are not going to end up being permanent residents, it is in our nation’s interests for people who are coming here to reside for prolonged periods for any reason to be given assistance to be an effective part of the Australian community.

The front cover of this report includes the words ‘Enriching Australia through the well-managed entry and settlement of people’. That settlement is a very important part of the whole area of immigration that does not get enough attention. It is not just about making sure people get here and get out okay—that is all important; it is about what happens when people settle here. I think we should think of settlement more as long-term residency of any sort, whether it is permanent in the first instance or not. I am thinking of our nation’s interest as much as the interest of the individuals coming here.

It is also worth while to emphasise just how much of a positive immigration is to Australia and how unavoidable but positive it is that a migration intake of that size will be multicultural. We need to have greater recognition—and the department is the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs—of the importance of promoting the positives of multiculturalism and recognition that a key component of effective multiculturalism is effective integration in the wider community in a way that does not make people negate their previous histories, cultures and beliefs but enables them to contribute that to the wider Australian community. We all benefit from that.

It is often put up by some people that multiculturalism is some sort of opposite to integration. That is sloppy thinking about what it is about. Getting those sorts of numbers of people coming into the country all the time is a great enrichment to Australia—and I would remind people that there is a reciprocal situation here. Many Australians are able to travel and work elsewhere and experience other countries for long periods. Many of them end up coming back here. We benefit from their experience as well. It is an overall positive enrichment for countries worldwide, and it is shown to give huge benefits to Australia. But we need to work on continually improving our delivery of that. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.