Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to make a contribution to this motion. As the member for North Sydney noted in his contribution, since this motion was placed on the Notice Paper things have changed quite a bit. That is of course a reminder that we cannot assume that the circumstances we are in today will continue and that we need to be continually vigilant as we navigate the circumstances of a world in which COVID continues to be endemic. I acknowledge the contribution of the member for North Sydney and recognise his personal circumstances as having been affected by border closures that were a consequence of the pandemic. That is an experience common to many Australians who have felt the pain of separation and the pain of uncertainty through this period. We are a nation in which half of us were born overseas or have parents who were born overseas. That is something I recognise in this debate, as well as the particular challenges faced by visa holders, which is what the motion particularly addresses. I thank the member for North Sydney for putting these issues before the House, because they are significant questions.

In debating this motion, we can't ignore some hard realities and, indeed, some responsibilities. We need to recognise that we have seen in this country a very significant and concerning drift away from pathways to permanency when it comes to temporary forms of migration, and this presents some very significant questions that really find their pointiest expression in the Intergenerational report released by the government. We've also got to think about the things that exacerbate the uncertainties and difficulties that this motion recognises—in particular, the call by a minister in this government for stranded international students to go home, when they could not go home—and the failure to really support people who were not in a position to return to their home countries, because of a variety of restrictions imposed during the pandemic, which led to many people being reliant on charity. There were queues at food banks in my electorate. We recognise that the Australian government was perhaps the least generous of all OECD nations in supporting the circumstances of stranded temporary migrants.

This matters because of who we are as a country that has been open to the world as a modern nation built on engagement with the world; and the economic significance, which the member for North Sydney was right to touch on, of our third-biggest export earner can't be neglected. When we think about the dimensions of the international student question, we've already seen the neglect with which this government has treated the university sector over nearly the last decade. That has had consequences not only for the reliance of these institutions on international students but also on the experience of international students, and it remains concerning that there is no vision for this. Of course, while our competitors in this global marketplace are on the front foot, we have to deal with the concerns that were evident throughout this period: lack of support; lack of empathy; lack of understanding; and, frankly, also a failure to deal with an outbreak of racism that came with the pandemic, a failure to recognise its significance to individuals and a failure to recognise its cost to us as a community and as a society.

These are issues that cannot be ignored when we think about the reopening of our border. They are matters that need to be dealt with, as indeed do our broader settings when it comes to migration policy. This is a question that Labor is up for but the government is not. At every level the government has failed the test. We've heard so much talk about the ag visa, yet no-one seems to know exactly what it will do or, critically, what protections will come with it for individual visa holders, for other workers impacted by it and for the relevant labour markets.

While we think about how we respond to this latest challenge when it comes to the new variant, and when we think about the wider challenges of our policy settings that apply to people coming here on visas, their pathways to permanency and our obligations to them and to building a skills system that is fit for purpose, these are questions that have all been ignored under this government. So, while we welcome the return of each and every one of them, and while we welcome the prospect of families being reunited and people having the opportunity to gather together, these are issues that cannot continue to be ignored.

See this speech in context