Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under standing order 74(5)(a), I seek an explanation from the Minister representing the Minister for Home Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Cash, as to why questions 382 and 689, which I placed on notice on 12 August and 13 September respectively, remain unanswered.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Keneally, and thank you for the notice. Unfortunately, I received it at 2.04 pm, so I have not yet had an opportunity to raise this with the minister. I will undertake to do so and revert to the chamber. It is my understanding that you have placed a substantial number of questions on the Notice Paperwhich have been responded to. However, I will raise this with the minister and revert.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under standing order 74(5)(b), I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

To the people in the chamber here today and in the gallery: I don't know if you have children. I do. When my kids were little, they used to say to me: 'Why do we have to learn about maths? Why is maths so important? When am I ever going to use maths in my daily life when I grow up?' Sometimes as a parent you struggle to find the practical applications for maths in daily life. You can talk about bank accounts and home loans, but that is a bit of an abstract notion. Today I sit here and wonder: did the government members learn about maths when they were growing up, and do they see the application of maths in the jobs they do today? For example, can they count to 30? When you lodge a question on notice, ministers get 30 days to answer it. That is simple counting, and they have simply missed that deadline. The minister, in her explanation, noted that I have placed a substantial number of questions on notice. Hey, by the way, that is my right as a senator. The minister also noted that many of them have been answered. Well, in fact, I could have put more questions here today that have not been answered. I chose these two, but there are a number that have not yet been answered.

But let me continue on why maths is important. Just this week, again on the issue of questions on notice, this government showed its lack of ability to deal with maths. I had a question to the government regarding the number of plane arrivals between 31 July and 19 August and they gave me the incorrect number. They gave me the number for another set of dates. So not only have this government lost control of the borders at our airports; they have lost control of the ability to do the basic maths to count the number of people who are coming to our airports and claiming asylum.

What we do know, though, is that, even though they couldn't count accurately for the period specified in my question on notice, one number remains valid in their answer, and that is that, under this third-term Liberal government, a record 95,000 people have arrived at our nation's airports and claimed asylum. Under this third-term Liberal government, Australia has seen 95,000 people arrive at our airports and claim asylum. That is at least one number they got right. Well, we assume they got it right. Maybe they will come back and change that, too; I don't know.

Of course, this government does have a track record. I do have a bit of a memory. I remember the omnibus savings bill in 2016. I don't know whether the Minister for Finance remembers that bill. The government introduced that bill in 2016. They had a maths problem in that bill. This was their big omnibus savings bill. On page 5 of that bill, there was a $107 million error. Do you know what the then Treasurer, Scott Morrison—he's got another job now, by the way; he's the Prime Minister. He was the Treasurer then. He called it 'a computational error', making him possibly the first Treasurer in the history of Australia to admit that maths is not his strong suit!

Of course, we do know that, when it comes to managing the budget, this government does have a particular problem managing numbers, because, when we left office in September 2013, net debt was at $175 billion. Net debt today under this third-term Liberal government is $399.1 billion. I'll leave the government to see if they can do the maths to work out how much they have increased net debt. Gross debt in September 2013 was $280 billion. Hazard a guess as to what it is now. If you don't know, don't worry; I can tell you. It's $565 billion. Again, there is a math problem for the government. How much have they increased gross debt under this third-term Liberal government?

We come to the questions that I have asked, and some of them are maths based, so perhaps they had trouble doing the maths. I asked in question 698:

1. How many people made onshore protection claims in the 2018-19 financial year.

Then I asked:

2. In the 2018-19 financial year, how many people made onshore protection claims in the following jurisdictions:

a. New South Wales;

b. Queensland;

c. Victoria;

d. South Australia;

e. Western Australia;

f. Tasmania;

g. the Australian Capital Territory; and

h. the Northern Territory.

Then I went on and asked a number of other questions, including:

3. Can a breakdown be provided of citizenship by country (for the top 10 countries only) :

I would have thought this was information—numbers—that the Department of Home Affairs would have to hand, and the government could have then provided to this Senate. I also note that I asked a number of other questions in question 382—for example:

1. When in 2016—

2016, by the way, is the year they had the omnibus savings bill that had the $107 million computational error in it, but I digress—

did the Minister first become aware of the current surge in asylum seeker applications from citizens of Malaysia and when did the Minister first become aware of the current surge of asylum seeker applications from citizens of China.

2. What actions did the Minister take once he became aware of these surges and when were these actions taken.

Then I went on and asked a few other questions. I asked another maths question again, so perhaps maths really isn't the strong suit of this government:

5. Of the people who have arrived by plane and then applied for asylum since 2014 (inclusive) , what are the current numbers for each of the top five citizenships …

a. at primary stage;

b. at the AAT;

c. at judicial review—

et cetera. It was a range of questions that go to the heart of what this government says is their core strength: securing our nation's borders. They have no problem telling you the number of boats that arrive. They have no problem telling you the number of asylum seeker applications for people who came by boat in the previous five years before they took office. They have a huge problem being straight with the Australian people that, when it comes to asylum seeker applications for people who arrive by aeroplane, we are on track to double the number of people who lodged an asylum claim and came by boat. We are closing in on 100,000 applications—onshore asylum seeker applications—from this government, who trumpet that securing the borders is their top priority and their core expertise.

Let's remember that, because we're an island, yes, we have water borders, but we also have airport borders, and this government created the Department of Home Affairs. When they did that, they brought in Australian Border Force. They brought in the Australian Federal Police. They brought in ASIO, ASIS and all of those agencies under this megadepartment, the Department of Home Affairs, because they and they alone, they claimed, knew how to secure the borders and keep Australians safe. This is what the then Prime Minister—you may remember him; his name is Malcolm Turnbull—said in July 2017:

When it comes to our nation's security, we must stay ahead of the threats against us. There is no room for complacency. There is no room for set and forget.

The current Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has used the same phrase when describing everything from Australia's foreign policy through to the emergency response for the drought. 'There is no set and forget,' says the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison.

Yet, while there was so much fanfare around the creation of the Department of Home Affairs portfolio, it would seem that 'set and forget' has been the key strategy for both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Home Affairs when it comes to this critical portfolio. After all, how else can you possibly explain that there are more than 200,000 people on bridging visas right now in Australia? That is a massive increase in the number of bridging visas. I might put that as a question on notice and see if that's another math problem the government can solve. What has been the increase, the blowout, in bridging visas? More than 221,000 would-be citizens, permanent residents, are waiting an average of 13 months to have their citizenship applications processed. Let's reflect that when they took over, when we left office, it took about five months to get a citizenship application processed. Here is a maths problem: it now takes 13 months; it used to take five. How many more months has it blown out?

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Eight.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Eight. Thank you very much, Senator. They also have paid more than $423 million to Paladin, a company first based out of a beach shack in Kangaroo Island that later went on to be fined some 3,700 times in a 12-month period for failing to meet minimum service standards. How did Paladin get this contract? We really don't know, because there was no competitive tender. There was no maths, obviously, involved. The government simply just threw a whole lot of money to this company that was registered to a beach shack and said, 'Go ahead'—$20 million a month.

By the way, Paladin are so bad at doing their job. They were supposed to be providing security to Manus Island. Apparently they were not very good at it, because we know from other information provided to the Senate that the Department of Home Affairs officials were too scared to visit Manus Island, because they felt it was not secure. So there you go, $20 million a month of Australians' money and not getting the job done.

There is possibly no greater example, though, of 'set and forget' than the Minister for Home Affairs' approach to border security. You only have to look at the government's leaked talking points this week to know that the minister is a little bit obsessed when it comes to talking about Labor. After all, it was a Labor Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who in fact did the heavy lifting to get the boats stopped. Scott Morrison has given himself that little trophy about, 'I stopped the boats.' We've all seen the photo of that in his office. He picked up and ran with what Kevin Rudd had been putting in place. Peter Dutton swanned into the portfolio and he assumed that the risks to Australia's border security would remain static. But, while the Minister for Home Affairs has been so keen to talk about boats, he has missed the fact that the people smugglers have changed their business model from boats to planes. He has utterly missed the fact that the people smugglers have changed their business model from boats to planes. That is why we are seeing this massive blowout in the number of people who are coming to Australia seeking asylum coming through our nation's airports.

I want to put on record that there is nothing wrong with seeking asylum—it is an important legal right—but that is not what is happening here. What is happening here is that people smugglers are trafficking workers, largely from China and Malaysia, on electronic tourist and other valid visas. They are bringing people into Australia. They are getting them to apply for asylum while they are here. They know that because this department has had a blowout in processing all types of applications—asylum, citizenship, parent visas, child visas. All of those time frames have blown out. So what happens? These people are put on bridging visas. They are given work rights and then they are sent out to work in low-paid, exploitative conditions. They are sent out to work in horticulture, in hospitality and in a range of other industries to work in these low-paid, exploitative conditions—conditions that I can only describe as akin to slavery.

I have met some of these workers. They tell stories of being paid just a couple of dollars an hour. They tell stories of having their belongings taken away from them while they are out during the day at work and then they are forced to buy them back from the labour hire company. They tell stories of how the labour hire company takes their passports and their papers and essentially holds them hostage.

I just want to make a couple of observations here. One is that the growers in our horticulture industry are not to blame for this. They are in fact sick of this going on. They are being held hostage by these labour hire companies as well, and by this government's failure to provide an appropriate visa system that provides the reliable, steady stream of workers they need. That is why we saw the horticulture sector out last year arguing for an agriculture visa. That is why we see them in the building here today, trying to meet with MPs to talk about the fact that they do not have access to a steady supply of workers. I met with one grower who offered to directly hire the workers who were coming onto his farm and pay them appropriately—because he was already paying the appropriate wage to the labour hire company; it just wasn't being passed on to the workers. He offered to do that, and the next day half the workers didn't turn up, because they couldn't: they were essentially being held hostage by the labour hire company, which had their passports and their papers.

That is the trafficking of workers into this country and the exploitation that is taking place under this government, which has failed to notice that people smugglers are using the asylum seeker system and the blowout in processing times to traffic people here to work in exploitative conditions. The questions I asked on notice were designed to get a better understanding of the scale of the problem, to define it, to help us to find a policy solution. And when I say 'us' I don't just mean the Labor Party; I mean us, this Senate, and us Australia. I've held two roundtables, one here in Canberra and one in Shepparton in Victoria, where I have sat down and spoken with local councils, with unions, with the growers and with the growers associations. I have been to farms. I have talked to workers who have been exploited. I have tried to help define this problem so that we can try to find some solutions.

That, though, is not what the government seems to be interested in. They know—and they themselves cite a figure—that some 85 per cent of the people who apply for asylum, when they come to our airports, are found not to be refugees. This is clearly what is happening. People are being trafficked here. And, by the way, I say to the members of the government and I say to the people who are here today listening to this debate and across Australia who are listening: don't just take my word for it. Assistant Minister Jason Wood, in this government, was previously the chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Migration. What did he say in a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Migration report last year? He said that criminal syndicates and illegitimate labour hire companies are exploiting a loophole in our immigration system to traffic workers into the country. Those are the words of the assistant minister in this Liberal-Nationals third-term government. If he can see it, why can't the government see it?

And take the word of the member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster, who described what is going on in horticulture as 'a crisis'. She has described it as a crisis. She has called on her own Prime Minister to take action on this, yet the government sits silent. And not only do they sit silent; they stand condemned of being unable to do even the basic maths to appropriately count the number of people who are coming to our airports and claiming asylum. They lack the capacity to comply with the standing orders of this Senate to supply answers to questions on notice within the required 30 days. If they were so serious about border security, they would have these answers at their fingertips and they would be able to supply them to the Senate.

Let me also make this point. When people are trafficked into the country, it is an exploitation of those people, and we should be morally outraged and we should condemn it. I don't think the mums and dads of Australia would like to know that the fruit they are putting in their children's lunchboxes was picked by some 19-year-old woman who's been trafficked here, who is being paid $4 an hour and who is subject to physical and sexual abuse. I really don't think that is the Australian fair go, the Australian way of life or something that the mums and dads of Australia would appreciate.

Let me also make the observation that when we build an economy based on a temporary exploited migrant workforce it lowers the wages and conditions available across the economy. When we have workers in hospitality or in horticulture or in beauty or in transport or in any other industry working for as little as $4 an hour, that makes it really hard for other businesses to compete on price and it lowers the wages and conditions. It's perhaps not surprising coming from a government that said that low wages were a design feature of their economic plan. This is the design feature they have for Australia. They are building an economy based on a low-paid, migrant, temporary and exploited workforce.

The fact that they cannot stand here today in the Senate and answer basic questions after 30 days about the number of people who are coming through our airports and claiming asylum—when they have no recognition that this is a problem, when they have their own ministers and members calling out for them to take action and when they have the horticulture industry in the building today trying to get solutions in front of government—means they should stand condemned, and they are condemned. I look forward and hope that, when the minister finally answers my questions, he gets his maths right and he gets his answers right. But, more importantly, I hope we get action on this problem and we get a solution.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of Minister Cash's explanation of unanswered questions on notice, or, should I say, I take note of a non-explanation regarding unanswered questions on notice. I am relatively new to this place, but it doesn't really seem like an unreasonable request to me that these questions are answered within 30 days. These are pretty basic questions and, as Senator Keneally said, they're questions of basic mathematics. So why aren't the government answering our questions? What is it that they're trying to hide? Not answering questions put to the government through correct channels in this place says more about their answers than their leaked talking points do. Maybe the government are trying to hide the fact that this financial year an average of 65 people per day made a claim for asylum under the Liberals, or maybe they're trying to hide the fact that a staggering 4,000 airplane people made a claim for protection between 1 July 2019 and 31 August 2019. That's 4,000 people in just 62 days under this government.

The government's own leaked talking points on this issue state, 'The government is focusing resources both on and offshore to prevent unmeritorious protection claims,' but they say they have stopped the boats. So what offshore protection are they focusing on? Are they focusing on it at all? From 1 July 2014 to 31 August 2019, 95,000 protection visa applications were lodged by persons who entered Australia lawfully by air. Some of our regional towns don't have that population. It's a population that could almost fill the MCG or, more relevantly to people in my state, they could fill two Adelaide Ovals, and yet the government's leaked talking points state that the number of people who apply for protection is declining. In 2018-19, the number of onshore protection claims fell by 12 per cent—a result of the government's focus on stopping unmeritorious claims. Ninety-five thousand are a result of the government's focus. I think it's time for the government to visit the optometrist, because their focus is completely out of whack. But, more than that, the government claim that, between 2018 and 2019, the number of onshore protection claims fell by 12 per cent, but, when you look back at the breakdown of figures per year since 2014, what you can actually see is that under this government the figures rose substantially every year and there was merely a very small decrease between 2018-19. The breakdown shows that, between 2014 and 2015, there were over 8,000 persons. The next year the number jumped to over 12,000, the year after it was 18,000 and in 2017-18 the number of people who made a claim for protection soared to a staggering 27,000.

It must be said that the majority of the people applying for asylum are not genuine refugees. We are not talking about vulnerable stateless people who need our protection; we are talking about people who are exploiting a loophole in this government's so-called tough border protection to seek asylum in Australia illegally. The government can try and blur the figures all they like. They can skew the figures to their benefit as much as they like, but they can't hide from the fact that under this government the exploitation of Australia's visa and migration system is absolutely out of control, and the government know this.

The now Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood MP, flagged the exploitation of Australia's visa and migration system earlier this year. In the last parliament, Mr Wood was the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. The committee handed down its report on the inquiry into the efficacy of current regulation of Australian migration and education agents. Wood made the following comments, as chair, in the forward:

Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole to bring out illegal workers who are often vulnerable and open to exploitation. This represents an orchestrated scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised.

So, the government can pretend they don't know where their focus is and they can pretend the figures don't exist or, at least, the figures they don't like—but the government cannot hide from the fact that they knew about this issue and they knew the extent of this issue. They have lost control of our borders.

Of the protection visa applications decided by the department between 1 July 2014 and 19 August 2019, over 60,000 people, or 84 per cent to be exact, were refused. The government like to stand up in this place and dismiss genuine refugees who come to this country to seek protection for their families and hope for a better life, but they're more than happy to allow tens of thousands of people who are not genuine refugees to exploit our immigration system via the air. Worst of all, the government know all of this and are not telling us because they know the Australian people would not accept a government that has lost control of its borders and put our national security at risk. Both the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Peter Dutton, and the immigration minister, David Coleman, have confirmed this. Peter Dutton has said that, between 2014-15 and 2017-18, 64,362 people arrived by air and subsequently applied for protection. Over the same period, 7,600 were granted a protection visa, which is a refusal rate of 90 per cent. And David Coleman has said:

… people who arrive lawfully by plane, we obviously know who they are. They have a lawful visa. And in terms of the people who actually apply for protection when they get here, more than 90 per cent are rejected and the number of people who are applying … so far this year is down by about 20 per cent. So it's coming down the number of people are applying onshore for protection. So, for the Labor Party to raise issues related to protection visas is ridiculous. Their legacy in unlawful boat arrivals, where our Border Force officers were required to go out onto the high seas to place themselves at risk and of course, the families themselves placing themselves at risk, that was an appalling situation. It was a humanitarian catastrophe. And there is absolutely no comparison to other forms of applications for protection.

That's what David Coleman said.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, may I remind you to refer to those in the other place by their correct title.

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, apologies. There is a greater issue at play here with aeroplane people claiming asylum, and it is an issue of exploitation. Once these individuals make a claim for protection and their original visa expires, they are placed on a bridging visa, often with work rights. There are currently over 200,000 people on bridging visas in Australia. The number of people on bridging visas in Australia reached the record high of 230,000 in March this year under this Liberal government. Bridging visas have blown out quarter on quarter, year on year since Peter Dutton became the responsible minister in 2014. That is six straight years of significant increases. The number of people on bridging visas in Australia increased by 29,000. Since the Liberals formed government in September 2013 the number of people on bridging visas in Australia has increased by 93,000. In fact, this increase alone is more than double the number of boat arrivals under the previous Labor government. So the government, who are constantly telling Australia that they are strong on our borders and strong on the protection of our national security, are, in fact, not telling us the full picture.

The government attempts to claim the majority of people on bridging visas are part of the legacy case load of boat arrivals. The home affairs minister has been quoted as saying:

… people who arrived under the Labor Party by boat are, a large number of the times, we don't know who they are because of the issues in terms of identity. They don't have travel documents and there are still many thousands of those people who are on bridging visas in the community as a direct consequence of the 50,000 people who arrived under Labor. We've got that number down over the years but it's been a long process and continues to be and is a direct consequence of Labor's appalling legacy.

However, according to the July 2019 illegal maritime arrivals legacy case load report, there are only 8,000 people with applications on hand or at review.

Visa processing times are both the reason for and a symptom of the current problem. In addition to all of this, the government has allowed these people to become vulnerable and face widespread exploitation in Australia. It's contributing to a growing labour crisis in the agricultural and horticulture sector, as Senator Keneally has said, and is significantly impacting my home state of South Australia. Virginia in South Australia is a regional town close to Adelaide, with most growers requiring labour all year round to work on a variety of vegetable crops, such as carrots, potatoes and tomatoes, although there are, of course, some inflated labour needs at harvest time.

A study conducted by Howe et al at the University of Adelaide titled Towards a durable future: tackling labour challenges in the Australian horticulture industry showed some staggering evidence of the government's policy failure in this area:

Despite being an eligible postcode for the WHM visa extension, growers we interviewed relied heavily on a local population of recently arrived permanent migrants from developing countries.

The absence of an intermediary role by accommodation providers can be attributed to the permanent residency status of the workforce with no need for temporary accommodation.

The case study in Virginia also revealed much less reliance on intermediaries than in the other four case studies. In this location, the … ABC FourCorners television investigation exposing non-compliant labour hire use in Virginia in 2015 has had a unique impact on growers' decision-making regarding labour hire use.

There was general consensus among large and medium-sized growers in Virginia that using labour hire posed significant risks to their businesses. As one grower reported, "After that [the Four Corners program] wemoved to direct employment and hired a human resources manager".

There was a high level of distrust of labour hire among growers in Virginia. The response of some growers was to bring all hiring decisions in-house. One grower reported, "we got stung really badly by a dodgy labourhire company — that was ripping off the workersand paying them the permanent rate but treatingthem like a casual; so when we audited payslipswe thought they were getting paid right".

Another grower told us, "I think labour hire is too dangerous and often attract the wrong kind of people. We don't want to work with contractors much because it's our responsibility to check everybody. Labour hire should be audited or closed up as an industry, otherwise it's too risky".

The exploitation of workers, regardless of their status in our country, under this government's watch is utterly and absolutely unacceptable. It is a perfect example of the growing list of policy failures from this Liberal government. If this government can't even be trusted to hold onto its own speaking notes, how can it be trusted to manage illegal plane arrivals entering Australia? It is absolutely clear that, on the issues of security and border protection, this chaotic and shambolic government cannot be trusted, and it seems pretty clear to me that this is precisely the reason why they have failed to answer Labor's questions.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Keneally and Senator Smith have already outlined, the opposition has put this item up for debate today because of the need to again highlight the gross maladministration by this government, particularly in relation to the Home Affairs portfolio. This is something we have pursued for some time now. I remember in the previous term of this parliament I was involved as a member of estimates committees which explored Minister Dutton's maladministration of his portfolio, including such celebrated examples as the Paladin affair, where we saw hundreds of millions of dollars handed out to a company based in a beach shack at Kangaroo Island with limited oversight by Minister Dutton's department and with limited tendering processes, raising serious questions about where taxpayer dollars had been spent and what processes had been used to ensure taxpayers received value for money.

Here we are in a new term of this government with Minister Dutton again responsible for gross maladministration in his portfolio. It begins with his continued failure to respect the parliament by providing timely answers to appropriate, detailed questions on notice posed by Senator Keneally about serious matters in his portfolio, but it goes to the broader issues of maladministration which are the subject of these questions on notice. In the time available I'm going to deal with only one example of that maladministration which we are seeking information about through these questions on notice—that is, the incredible blowout in numbers of people coming to our country via plane outside the usual processes. We know the government has made a lot of political mileage in recent years over people coming to Australia by boat, but in the meantime we have seen a much bigger problem arise under this government's very nose in the form of people coming to Australia by plane.

Some of you are aware that I have a very long history, both in this parliament and as a lawyer, of defending the rights of asylum seekers and refugees. I join with Senator Keneally in putting on the record that Labor, unlike some members of this government, understands that it is not illegal to seek asylum—and I make no condemnation of the people who do that. But what I do condemn are the organised crime syndicates that you can often find behind the number of people who are coming to Australia by plane without proper processes and then staying on in Australia for a number of years.

The purpose of these organised crime syndicates is to exacerbate a problem that we have seen grow on this government's watch, and that is the gross exploitation of migrant workers from many parts of the world. This arose in the previous term of parliament and it has been going on for a long time. Unfortunately, we do see some unscrupulous operators, in horticulture and other industry sectors, who take advantage of migrant workers. In fact, Madam Deputy President, I know that this is something you have worked on personally both in this parliament and prior to your arrival in this parliament. Unfortunately, we are seeing a growing number of people being brought into this country by organised crime syndicates for the express purpose of exploiting them. They are putting them on farms and in other workplaces and paying them extremely low rates of money—$4 an hour is the sort of figure Senator Keneally was talking about—and forcing them to endure quite horrific conditions.

I will give you a couple of examples we have seen in my home state of Queensland. Fair Work inspectors investigated the alleged underpayment of 22 workers from Vanuatu who were employed to pick fruit and vegetables by a labour hire contractor operating at sites in the Lockyer Valley, Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg—all in Queensland. Ultimately, proceedings were commenced in the Federal Circuit Court, which found that the company involved, and one of its directors, had breached the Fair Work Act by failing to pay minimum wages and leave entitlements. Some workers gave evidence that they had been subjected to very poor conditions through their employment, including inadequate accommodation, a lack of food and water, the withholding of passports and personal belongings, and threats of deportation or police reports if they complained. It is that last point that migrant workers in particular are subject to. It often impedes them from making complaints about their treatment because they live in fear that they are going to be deported. As low as the money they are being paid is, often, due to circumstances in their own personal lives and their home environment, they are forced to stay here earning very little money and sending it back home. They are fearful of being deported if they makes any complaints.

Senator Keneally has referred to the fact that members of the government, including the member for La Trobe, Mr Wood, and the new member for Mallee, have highlighted the extreme exploitation we are seeing of people who are brought to Australia by plane by organised crime syndicates. And this government is not doing anything about it. Why is that the case? It is because Minister Dutton is too busy running his political wedges and playing politics rather than properly oversighting his portfolio. Rather than the maladministration we continue to see from Minister Dutton, we need him to take some action to stop this outbreak of exploitation of migrant workers and exploitation of our borders by organised crime syndicates.

We know that this government has a long history of failing migrant workers. I congratulate the efforts of a number of trade unions—in particular, the National Union of Workers, which is soon to merge and form a new union, the United Workers Union. They have done a fabulous job in standing up for the rights of these migrant workers. But, frankly, it shouldn't be up to unions to have to do this. This is something that has actually been caused by Minister Dutton's own maladministration. He is responsible for this issue. He has every opportunity to put in place the right policies and the right regulatory authorities to ensure that people aren't inappropriately being brought to this country and then exploited with the kinds of conditions that we are talking about. This is another gross example of maladministration on Minister Dutton's part. The sooner he stops playing politics and gets back to doing his job, the better.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This afternoon's debate, where Senator Keneally has moved a motion to take note of the non-answers to questions on notice and the failure to answer questions in this place, is important. It is our job as senators to do our best to insist on those answers according to the rules of this place, but those answers are not being given in good spirit or in accordance with the expected conduct and responsibilities of this place. Why might this be so? We know that the government has a lot they don't want to reveal in this space.

Minister Dutton and Minister Coleman have absconded their portfolio responsibilities. All you find in the answers to questions on notice that you do receive is a revelation of the mismanagement of Australia's citizenship and visa systems, so it's little wonder they don't want to answer questions in this place. It is bad enough that the waiting time for the majority of visa applications has blown out. I wonder what the government might be holding onto in refusing to answer these questions in a timely way. I hope they come prepared to estimates, as I know that Senator Keneally will be expecting them to be. It is the right of this place to ask questions outside of estimates and for those questions to be answered within the expected time frames.

We have a government that has allowed the number of asylum claims to blow out. As Senator Keneally said: yes, people have an absolute right to claim asylum, but they need to be legitimate. The people smugglers have changed their business model. The government has not put the people smugglers out of business. There are more people coming in by air and claiming asylum than ever before but who are ultimately not found to be asylum seekers or to have a well-founded fear of persecution. The Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood, has been forced to admit, through the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration in the last parliament:

Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole to bring out illegal workers who are often vulnerable and open to exploitation. This represents an orchestrated scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised.

This is an appalling state of affairs that we have been fighting to shine the light on for many years. It has been the case in my time in estimates committees and on the Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which looks at migration issues, that you have to fight tooth and nail for information on what's really going on for these vulnerable people. This particular report was tabled in the last parliament. There have been months and years of dog whistling by Minister Dutton and those opposite. The statistics are actually revealed in this report—but also over many, many years of work done by the Labor opposition, asking for the very data and statistics that Senator Keneally has rightfully asked for.

We know that in 2014-15, 8,652 people lodged applications for protection visas. In 2015-16, there were about 12½ thousand. In 2016-17, there were more than 18,000. In 2017-18, there were 27,000. In 2018-19, there were 24,000. So far this financial year there have been some 4,000 applications. We wouldn't know the answer to how many people are actually making applications for protection, be they valid or invalid, or the means by which they arrive, if it weren't for the power of this parliament to ask questions to find out what the government is doing. It is our responsibility to ask those questions, but you refuse to answer them. Why? Why do you refuse to answer them? Because the answers reveal your absolute mismanagement of these issues. There were nearly 96,000 protection visa applications under this term of government—under the tenure of Mr Morrison, when he was immigration minister, then under Mr Dutton and then under Mr Coleman. You don't want this kind of data revealed. Why? Because you prefer your small vox pop grabs where you can dog whistle and point the finger in an entirely different direction. But the data and the facts speak for themselves. All of these people arrived lawfully by air, but with an average of some 51 per day since 2014. All of this is evidenced in previous questions Labor has asked in this parliament.

It is little wonder that you are dragging your feet in being transparent and open with this place. Most of these applications are not made by people with genuine refugee claims. Eighty-four per cent, or 62 per cent of those applications, were refused by the department over the same period. What we've now found is evidence that, while their claims are being processed, they're here illegally accessing Australia's labour market. It's not like the government has done any work to piece these pictures together or to proactively ask, 'What's wrong with our immigration system and how are we going to reform it?' They have to be dragged kicking and screaming, day after day, through accountability in this place.

It's little wonder we have a department that has suffered through cuts and privatisation. They are about to continue to get busier as they deal with this increased case load. Some 4,000 people made a claim for protection between 1 July 2019 and 31 August—that is, 4,000 people in just 62 days. There's something very, very wrong going on here. Very few of these people are statistically shown to have valid asylum claims. We therefore have a system where our visa system is letting in people; it's not preventing them from buying a ticket and getting on an airplane to start with, which is how the visa system is supposed to work. They are arriving in Australia and making that claim when they get here, because that gives them a valid reason to stay. In the meantime, we know that many of these people are being exploited in Australia's labour market. They're essentially, in many cases, trafficked persons who are being trafficked because they are wanting to access Australia's labour market. They want to access Australia's labour market, so they consent to being trafficked in this way, but do they want to be exploited in the way they are being? No. There's no tourism pamphlet handed out that says, 'Come strawberry picking in Australia for $4 an hour.'

The government is on track to see more than 23,000 claims for asylum in the 2019-20 financial year, with time being taken to process these claims. In the meantime, people have access to Australia's labour market or do not have access but are working illegally. We are failing Australians by allowing huge blowouts in our migration system in this way.

We have many people who are awaiting their legitimate claims for asylum in our country to be processed. There are many legitimate claims for people who have fled dire circumstances and are trapped in Australia in uncertain conditions because this department is swamped by the mismanagement of this government in letting in by plane these many thousands of people who are essentially being trafficked here to access our labour market.

We have more than 200,000 people on bridging visas, and we reached a record-high level of 230,000 in March this year. That's a pretty epic number of people, given that we're a nation of some 25 million people. But these statistics have blown out, quarter on quarter, year on year, ever since Peter Dutton became the responsible minister back in 2014. From June 2018 to the next year, the number of people on bridging visas increased by 29,000. Since the coalition formed government in September 2013, that's increased by 93,000 people. That's why we now have this record-high figure of 230,000 people. I've sat in estimates looking at these statistics. The government pretends they are trying to clear this case load, but the way they're going about it is statistically and mathematically impossible. We've had a bit of talk about stats and maths today. There is simply nothing you are doing that is seriously addressing this problem. I've seen some of the arguments about what you're doing to accelerate processing, but actually it is doing nothing to drill down into this bridging visa issue specifically.

The government has attempted to falsely claim that a majority of people on bridging visas are part of the legacy case load—that is, the legacy case load of boat arrivals under Labor. As you like to say, you've stopped the boats. But in a report of July this year into that legacy case load it is very clear. It says that there are only 8,000 people with applications on hand or at review—8,000 out of 230,000. I'm sorry, it's all very well for you to keep pointing out, 'We've stopped the boats!' while thinking, 'But, for goodness sake, don't look over here at these 230,000 people on bridging visas,' or at the 50 people a day who are arriving in Australia to seek asylum, supposedly, many of whom are actually being trafficked in to access our labour market.

We have continued to have a government that is completely missing in action on these issues. As at July 2019, in the appeals process in the migration and refugee division, there were some 63,000 cases on hand; 40,000 of those were in migration and 23,000 in the 'other refugee' division. Malaysian-Chinese nationals made up a majority of these lodgements. Some of these people may not be genuine refugees and will have their claims rejected, as we've discussed. But when you look at the true purpose, at why they've sought to come here and claim that asylum, they are coming here to access our labour market, to work, and they are absolutely susceptible to exploitation as workers.

This exploitation is happening right around the nation. At the moment in Western Australia it is, quite happily, peak strawberry season. And as Senator Keneally said, when you pack fruit into your children's lunchboxes you like to take pride in ethical agricultural production in Australia. I know that our strawberries in Western Australia are grown locally, and I love them. However, it is very clear that the exploitation of workers is taking place in the metropolitan area, in the strawberry-growing areas of Western Australia, using exploited labour. Wanneroo is one of those locations. It's not an eligible regional postcode for the purposes of the working holiday-maker visa extension. This region is suffering because they're not an eligible area. They have this constantly rotating backpacker workforce. Just as you've trained someone up to pick strawberries, they have to leave and go and get another job somewhere else, because as a holiday-maker they're not entitled to stay longer than three months. It's clear that's what is going on in Wanneroo is that firms have been supplied undocumented workers or labour hire firms were not legally compliant in how they were paying workers. If you had a more sustainable workforce you would be able to do something about that.

I am very proud of my Labor colleagues in taking up the fight on this issue. It is not just these exploited workers that are suffering; it's everyone that is stuck in our overblown, overburdened immigration system who cannot get their paperwork done. Whether it's someone waiting for a parental visa, whether it's someone trying to have family reunion, there are so many people that we deal with in our offices every day whose lives are intimately affected by the decisions of the department of immigration. That burden would be a lot lighter if decisions could be made in a fair but, very importantly, timely manner. There is little prospect of things being timely with the kind of flooding of the immigration system that is taking place at the moment and the absolute mismanagement of it under this government.

So, as we head towards estimates next week, you can be sure that we will be very fired up about these issues. You can be sure that we will be seeking accountability from the government. These issues not only affect people inside immigration but also affect all of us in the sense that we have very real labour and working conditions that are undermined by this loophole in our immigration system that is allowing essentially what looks to be perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers potentially working without a valid asylum claim but who are essentially here accessing the labour market.

People 100 per cent have a right to seek asylum in our nation and for it to be properly assessed. But we have procedures in our nation to make sure that people get a visa before they arrive here if they need one. Where are those procedures? What on earth is happening? No wonder Senator Keneally is seeking your accountability on these questions. So have no doubt there will be a lot more work to do in this place, and within the parliamentary committee system as a whole, on these questions. Australians deserve answers and this Senate deserves them too.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Accountability is the hallmark of parliament, and of course you would expect that questions put by Senator Kristina Keneally to the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migration Services and Multicultural Affairs on 12 August 2019 would be answered. You would expect that there would be an attempt to turn around and answer some very serious questions that are confronting the immigration and visa system and challenges that we are facing this country.

In 2016 one of questions asked was: 'When in 2016 did the minister first become aware of the current surge in asylum seeker applications from citizens in Malaysia? When did the minister first become aware of the current surge of asylum seeker applications from citizens of China?' That's a very fundamental, critical question on how the government is responding to weaknesses that are clearly appearing within our visa system.

You then go to the government's talking points that were released on 14 October, much to their surprise. A government that have been in power for six years state in one of their talking points that their response to exploited workers—such as the ones that were talked about in the questions raised by Senator Kristina Keneally—should be, 'The exploitation of any worker in Australia is something we have zero tolerance for.' This is what's happening at the moment with regard to migrant wage theft. Two-thirds of migrant workers reported that their employer, at one point or another, failed to provide a payslip, with 44 per cent reporting that they have never received a payslip for their work. Twenty-eight per cent of workers in the hospitality industry had experienced their employer confiscating their passport. Almost a third of surveyed participants earned $12 per hour or less—some as little as $4. Of course, $12 per hour is approximately half the minimum wage for a casual employee. Almost half of the participants earned $15 per hour or less. These statistics are from the National Temporary Migrant Work Survey by the Migrant Worker Justice Initiative from the University of New South Wales and UTS in November 2017. We've seen a situation where migrant workers are grossly underpaid. In the case of penalty rates, between 45 and 76 per cent of workers are underpaid or not paid penalty rates. Fifty-one per cent of workers are not paid or are underpaid for overtime. Sixty per cent of workers do not have tax withheld by their employers. Thirty-nine per cent of workers have had entitlements withheld. The source of that statistic is the Ending wage theft report from the McKell Institute in March 2019.

But don't worry. The government have an answer—not an answer to questions; not an answer to the serious matters raised by Senator Keneally, 'The exploitation of any worker in Australia is something we have zero tolerance for.' In the 2018 Harvest Trail, where investigations were carried out by Fair Work, they issued 150 formal cautions and 132 infringement notices totalling $155,390. They then started going through a number of companies. These are just a few of the companies that they discovered were ripping off migrant workers: LetUsGrow Hydroponics Pty Ltd, where $37,781 was recovered for four employees; TDS International Investment, $92,381; $40,000 was recovered from Brownlow Enterprises; and Maroochy Sunshine, a $186,000 penalty against the company and a $41,300 penalty against sole director, Mr Bani. But has that had any effect in dealing with the thieves?

I recall John Howard saying—and, of course, we hear this from the conservatives too many times—'We will decide who comes into this country.' Minister Dutton and Prime Minister Morrison are in effect saying that criminals, wage thieves, organised crime participants and human traffickers will decide who comes into this country, because they're the ones who profit from it and the government's policies encourage it. There is lack of accountability and a lack of answers. It's because they simply don't care about what's happened to the Australian community. When the migrants are exploited, when wages are stolen and when criminal gangs operate, it steals from decent employers who employ people correctly; it steals from people who are doing the right thing; it steals from Australians who are looking for jobs. Fundamentally, this government have to be held to account for their obligations to the Australian community, their obligations to Australian workers and their obligations to migrant workers who find themselves working in this country. I always find it amusing when the government turns around and says—rightly, and I think we all share this view—that when people come to this country, and particularly when visa holders come to this country, there is an opportunity to have quid quo pro. That sense is about people having a good experience here. People, particularly students, that might want to carry on other careers back in their home countries will have an experience about what Australia is like. But what Australia is like under this government is wage theft. What Australia is like under this government is people not turning around and making a difference, let alone answering the questions that can make the difference. When you answer the questions, it drives results and it drives accountability. That is what this parliament is for.

Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just want to say a few words in finishing off this take note debate. I want to thank Senator Marielle Smith, Senator Sheldon, Senator Watt and Senator Pratt for their participation in this debate, the observations they have made and the contributions they have made to this take note debate. I would also like to put on the record my appreciation to Senator Ciccone, who hosted and organised the round table that we held about aeroplane arrivals and labour shortages and labour demand in the horticulture sector in Shepparton only last week. I want to put on the record my appreciation for the work that he has done in advocating for migrant workers, exploited workers and, indeed, all Australian workers to have fair wages and conditions.

I began this take note debate making some observations about maths. While it was a perhaps a more lighthearted start to this conversation, the subject is incredibly serious. I do acknowledge Senator Sheldon for his contribution in bringing this home to the seriousness of the problem and some of the devastating maths and some of the devastating numbers that affect exploited workers in Australia. Again, as I said in my remarks, this is not the fair go that we understand Australia to be. The condition of exploited workers, particularly in the horticulture sector, is not something that most Australians would tolerate, as Senator Pratt observed, or find ethical. I do think that the parents of Australia would find it quite concerning if they had information on where the fruit and veg they buy for their families comes from, who picks it and the exploitative conditions under which those people work.

Yesterday the government started the day by accidentally leaking their talking points to the entire press gallery. They finished last night by losing a vote in the Senate on national security legislation. Today they have proved that they cannot answer even basic questions about asylum seekers or about the numbers who are arriving through our airports. Indeed, they can offer no plan for how they are going to address this problem, how they are going to secure our borders or how they are going to protect, as Senator Sheldon said, those people who come to our country to have a positive experience. Nor are they prepared to do much to work with the horticultural sector to ensure a steady and fair supply of workers or do much about lifting wages and conditions across the economy. They seem intent on allowing to develop under their watch an economy that is based on a working population made up of temporary migrants who are paid extremely low wages and subject to exploitative conditions.

Right now we have two million people in Australia who have no path to permanency and no stake in the future of the country. They are locked out of the wages conditions laws that protect the rest of the country. Based on the government's own projections on temporary migration, that is going to increase to three million people. That changes the composition of our country. That changes the composition of our economy. All of us should care very deeply about the path this government is taking us on, because, whether we are here on a visa, whether we are here permanently, whether we are working with good wages and conditions, whether we are struggling, or whether we have children or not, we all have a stake in the future of this country and an economy that is built on people being able to access a living wage, protections at work, safety and fair work conditions. This is really what is at stake here.

Before I wrap up, I would like to acknowledge another maths statistic, and this one is also not very happy. I would ask the indulgence of the chamber in letting me switch subjects slightly. Today is international Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I know there is a motion before the Senate later tonight, and I acknowledge that it is supported across the crossbench and the government. The depressing statistic about that is that six babies are stillborn every day in Australia. There are 2,200 stillborn babies a year, and that is a number that has not changed in 20 years, despite all of the advances that we have made in this country in terms of maternal health.

I'd like to acknowledge in the public gallery the director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth, Dr Vicki Flenady, and her team, who were here earlier. Earlier today Vicki and her team, with Minister Hunt and Mr Chris Bowen, the shadow minister for health, launched the Safer Baby Bundle. I want to end on a more positive form of maths, and it is this: the Safer Baby Bundle has set a target of reducing the number of preventable stillbirths by 20 per cent. That would mean saving some 200 babies' lives every year in Australia. I am quite hopeful that, with a range of other measures as well, we can surpass that. The Safer Baby Bundle launched today with funding from the government, backed by recommendations of this Senate. This very Senate's stillbirth inquiry is what has led to today's announcement. I am really quite pleased that Vicki is in the chamber today, and I am very delighted that today we launched the Safer Baby Bundle. I thank all members of the Senate, because it was your support for the Senate select committee into stillbirth that made the Safer Baby Bundle possible.

Question agreed to.