Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I'll keep my remarks as brief as possible but note that I'm speaking on behalf of the deputy chair and all other Labor members of the committee, and there is no opportunity in the Federation Chamber. At the outset, I thank the chair. I really want to make four points. Labor members agree with most although not all of the report, but that's not saying much. The first point is what a missed opportunity this report is. Australia has right now a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform our migration program. The borders won't stay shut forever and neither should they, but, true to form, the government have squibbed it with this report. The report into skilled migration is a missed opportunity to rethink the program for when the borders open, to attract younger, highly skilled migrants and boost Australia's long-term economic prospects and wealth and get wages moving again. The recommendations, as outlined, are reactive, piecemeal administrative tinkering overall, lacking deep thought and real change—setting up a new committee, changing one coding system for another. People could well view this inquiry, at its worst, as a low-rent complaint shop run by the government to make it easier for employers to bring in migrants, yet doing nothing to boost Australian wages or our long-term national wealth.

Australia is a nation built great by migration—permanent skilled migration overwhelmingly—and that should continue. Yet the government has not taken this as an opportunity for any deep thinking. Most tellingly, the report is completely and totally silent on the most substantive, thoughtful submission we received, from the Grattan Institute. I don't agree with all their ideas, but at least it was a deep attempt to provide an intellectual rigour and evidence based argument to boost the economic value Australia gets from migration.

I do support most of the recommendations about regional migration. I think it was a bit of a cheap shot from the chair—whom I consider a friend and who is actually a terrific chair of this committee—to suggest that Labor is not supportive of doing more for regional migration. But the report fails to address the integrity concerns regarding the global talent investment visa, which has been described by a former deputy secretary of immigration as a cronies' dream. The Grattan Institute also raised concerns regarding this program. It needs evaluation.

The second point I want to make is that this report is a remarkable and blatant repudiation by government members of Peter Dutton's tenure as minister for immigration. It's a complete reversal of his changes to skilled migration and a vindication of Labor's criticism. I'll just point to three issues. Government members, rightly, have recommended restoring pathways to permanent migration. This is a huge shift in policy, ensuring that skilled visa holders can settle permanently in this country, send their kids to school, get an education, join their local community, start doing business and build careers. We heard from business after business, in regions and cities, how ridiculous it was that people could come here on some kind of permanent insecurity underclass program that leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and holds down wages. To their credit, the government members listened and rolled the former minister's changes. Secondly, they recommended fixing the confusion in the skills shortages lists, consolidating them back into one list and also, I hope, helping to deal with the lack of transparency about the rent-seeking mystery of who ends up on the list or not.

Thirdly—and this is my personal favourite—they recommended bringing back good old-fashioned customer service, having human beings available to liaise with industry and assist applicants with complex cases. OMG! It is long overdue but can only be achieved with additional resources, reversing some of the massive cuts—thousands of staff cut—by this government over many years, which the report conveniently fails to mention. It is constantly bemusing in committees, including this one, to watch government MPs get frustrated with public servants because they don't have the resources, yet they never take responsibility for the cuts that they've made. They fail to join the dots. The Public Service is not a magic pudding. It's a critical national institution that the government should invest in and not attack and cut.

Also—and I won't dwell on this—there have been the TAFE cuts. We need to invest more in the training system. TAFE is not doing its job. That's why we need migrants. That's what the evidence says. The government members never want to talk about the $3 billion of cuts to TAFE from Tony Abbott as Prime Minister onwards. If we could insert emojis into Hansard, at this point I'd choose the eye roll and the facepalm. It is disappointing but telling that government members did not rule out privatisation or outsourcing of the visa system, and it's disappointing that throughout the inquiry government members kept pushing for more foreign workers to be allowed in at the expense of stranded Australians. I acknowledge there's a skills shortage in many parts of the country; no question, that's what the evidence says. But what I don't accept is that we write a blank cheque to foreign workers at the expense of 38,000 stranded Australians. That's the equation and that's the trade-off that they don't want to acknowledge.

The third point is the most shocking revelation throughout the inquiry, and that is that no government department seems to know anything about or has done any analysis of the impact of temporary migration on Australian wages—nothing, zip, just blank looks. Home Affairs employment just looked confused. The Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold is the minimum salary you have to pay a temporary skilled migrant. It's been frozen for eight long years under this government, since the Prime Minister started off as the minister, at $53,900. It's a damaging freeze that's put downward pressure on wages, especially at the lower end of the market. Evidence was presented and there was significant media commentary throughout the inquiry. The Reserve Bank of Australia Governor talked about the impact of the migration program on wages. The McKell Institute issued a report. Freezing wages for eight long years creates not a floor in wages but a ceiling on wages for Australian workers and temporary work visa holders alike across several sectors, as the National Skills Commission data showed. The gap between the TSMIT and annual average wages is now $26,000. That's what happens when you freeze it. It's a gap of $26,000, which makes it far more attractive in many sectors to hire a temporary work visa holder, rather than an Australian worker—not everywhere, but in too many sectors.

Labor believes that Australia's post-pandemic migration program must deliver genuine highly skilled migrants, who are properly paid. It goes to the composition of the program. This is not an antimigrant comment. It goes to the composition of the program, which this report just didn't tackle. The committee, sort of to its credit, I think at the insistence of Labor members throughout the inquiry, was embarrassed into recommending a gradual increase in the TSMIT. That is a big shift, but it's not nearly enough. They've had a report from their own hand-picked expert since 2017, which they've failed to act on, saying raise and index the TSMIT. Significantly raising the TSMIT and ensuring its ongoing indexation would act as a safeguard against the types of temporary migrant worker exploitation and wage stagnation that have become systemic features of the pre-COVID labour market—deliberate features.

Predictably government members proposed to relax labour market testing in multiple places throughout the report. Labor members do not agree with the extent of the government's weakening of this important regime to ensure Australians always get a first go at jobs. We do acknowledge in the report—and this is a shift for us—the case in limited circumstances while the borders are closed for a change, and we pointed to those. It's not true to say what has been alleged by the government. But this is part of the Morrison government's ongoing push to undermine labour market testing, reducing incentives for business to employ Australian workers.

The final point is on international students. We welcome ideas to improve post-study work rights and pathways to permanency for the highest-performing international students in a critical skills shortage area. It's a little bit academic, given the state of the sector with the borders closed, but that's for another debate. We're especially pleased that the report acknowledges the situation of the current international student graduates, 485 visa holders, who are stuck offshore. Their visas are going to expire before they can use them. Labor members raised these issues with the department through the inquiry. These young people have made an investment in our country, and they were made a promise by our country of post-study work rights in return. With the borders closed, they're stuck offshore and there's no commitment—just radio silence from the government—to extend or allow renewal of the visas when they can safely come back. This is incredibly damaging to Australia's reputation in what was our fourth-biggest export sector, and denies Australia a proven source of highly skilled and well adapted young migrants. Australia can do much better by these graduates, and the government must urgently address this issue.

I thank the chair for the way he conducted the inquiry. As was noted, we agree with most of the recommendations, but they're a massive missed opportunity. I do not accept and strongly reject the characterisation that Labor is somehow anti-regions or anti-regional skilled workers. We've done our best in good faith to acknowledge those points, but the government have to acknowledge the trade-off with stranded Australians because of their failure to build quarantine facilities and failure to secure enough vaccines.

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