Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

It has been my practice for some time to make a brief opening statement at these hearings. On budget day I released this year's immigration program. It is appropriate that I talk a little bit about that because the most important part, in many senses, of an immigration minister's role is to set the immigration program for each year. We have taken the decision to increase the immigration program this year to 185,000 places, with 16,000 places specifically for regional Australia. Over two-thirds of the program will be for skilled migrants to help fill critical skill needs. It is well known that the Australian economy has emerged very strongly from the global financial crisis, and as the mining boom mark 2 is driving record investment across Australia it will present unprecedented opportunities for Australia. But it is important that we indicate that we want our migration program to deal with not only the emerging pressures but the existing and re-emerging pressures for workforce capacity. This is not just a matter for the resources sector, although the resources sector feels it particularly acutely, but a matter across the economy. I know that I regularly have representations from the hospitality field, for example, and from the retail sector generally, about skills gaps and about labour shortages. So the increases in the immigration program that I announced on budget day are very important. They are prudent, they are responsible and they are necessary. It has been particularly important to make sure that they are focused on the areas of greatest need. Those areas are regional Australia, whether in Western Australia, Queensland or elsewhere. There has been a particular need to fill labour shortages and skills gaps in regional Australia. The allocation of 16,000 places as an indication, subject to demand, for regional Australia is very important.

Also important are the regional migration agreements which I announced on budget day. Regional migration agreements are a first; they are an important opportunity for local councils, regional development organisations, chambers of commerce and unions to come together to assess the labour needs in their particular region and to make it easier for businesses in that region to develop further agreements and bring in temporary workers under those agreements. Also important are the enterprise migration agreements, which are very much focused at megaprojects. The thresholds that we have set in terms of enterprise migration agreements mean that a relatively small, but nevertheless significant, number of projects across the country—perhaps 14 or so—will qualify for treatment as a megaproject in the resources sector, which will make it significantly easier for those projects to attract the type of temporary migrants that they need. There will be close consultation with all the relevant affected parties, including trade unions—that is something that is appropriate—to make sure that we set the appropriate standards. In particular, we will set standards in relation to the needs for domestic training. It will be a very clear requirement of having an enterprise migration agreement that there be an opportunity for domestic training in the areas of labour shortage for which migrants are being sought. It will not be appropriate to have a general program, but people will need to show us how they are engaging in domestic training, making it possible for us to justify entering into an enterprise migration agreement.

There are other measures announced on budget day, including the 457 processing centre in Brisbane, which will further speed up processing. I am very pleased with the processing regime for 457 visas. There has been a considerable improvement under this government in the amount of time it takes to process 457 visas, but we can always do better. The new $10 million centre in Brisbane will make substantial progress.

Mr Morrison interjecting—

I see the member for Cook scoffs. I am more than happy to compare our record with theirs when it comes to 457 visa processing. The figures speak for themselves: it is considerably quicker to get a 457 visa under this government than it was under the previous government. I am more than happy, if the honourable member for Cook chooses to ask me a question about that, to answer it. That is my opening statement, and I look forward to fielding questions from honourable members.

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