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

I welcome the opposition's interest in enterprise migration agreements and the benefit they bring to the Australian economy. Enterprise migration agreements were recommended by the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce, chaired by the now Special Minister of State, in 2010. They were adopted in the 2011 budget and announced. I then issued the guidelines on EMAs after consultation with the sector and with unions, as I recall, in September 2011. The application from Roy Hill came in, as I recall it, in the few months after that. It was, perhaps, in early 2012 or late 2011. I updated the productivity committee of the cabinet informally as to progress and regularly consulted with officers across the government as to progress in relation to this development. As I said yesterday, the Prime Minister's office was briefed in detail early in the week of 21 May.

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