Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We've had another article today in the paper, by Judith Sloan, with regard to our high immigration figures. The recent arrivals are about 500,000 a year. The article reads:

In addition to natural population increase—which is only about 120,000 a year—what this means is that close to 600,000 have been added to the population in a year. This is almost half the population of Adelaide and over 100,000 more than the population of Canberra.

On top of that we've got 726,000 international students.

Apart from all of that, the government has opened our country to Afghan refugees that are in Pakistan. Between 15 August and 10 November, there were 217,000 Afghan visa applications, 32,000 of them on P1 and P2. P1 priority is for Afghan women who are without men to protect them. These are women that have probably never had an education. They'll come to Australia, bring their children and will not assimilate. I can see them on welfare for most of their lives because they will not be able to assimilate into our culture. My big concern is that these people may be Islamic fundamentalists. Are they going to be looked at properly, and is it viable to bring them to Australia? The man that was released from the detention centre—he's out there—was originally from Afghanistan. We have someone who is a sex offender on our streets.

We cannot keep increasing the population entering Australia when the Australian people themselves can't find housing. It is wrong to keep increasing the numbers. If you're going to bring people into the country, make sure they will assimilate. Make sure they are in tune with our culture and way of life and will assimilate into our society, which is more important to this country than bringing in people. There are 217,000: 66,000 applications that have been processed and another 150,000 in the pipeline. When will it be enough? (Time expired)