Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. Will the Minister update the House on actions the government is taking to ensure Australia's migration program does not disadvantage hardworking Australians? What are the benefits of having an approach that does not minimise job opportunities for Australians and their families?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for his question and his interest in making sure, like all of us want to on this side of the House, that we create jobs for all Australians, in particular young Australians.

In politics, you need to look not at what people say but what they do. When you look at what this government does, we are creating jobs for Australians, we are helping families and businesses; we are not pursuing an ideological policy such as the opposition leader is which is resulting in communities paying higher electricity prices and small businesses putting off people from those businesses, because they cannot be guaranteed an electricity supply, and Australians get this. They understand the difference between this dodgy Leader of the Opposition and this side of the House, which is undertaking public policy which is resulting in job growth.

There is a program that we operate in this country, which is the 457 visa program, and it means that, if we cannot fill an Australian job with an Australian worker—and that is the absolute priority of this government. It is unfortunate that the Leader of the Opposition is walking off, because I am about to go to the time when he was issuing a record number of 457 visas.

We want to put Australians first. We want Australians into jobs, and that is what the Labor Party says they want to do. That is what this Leader of the Opposition said he wanted to do when he was employment minister, but it was very different when he was employment minister because his actions do not match his words. We saw that, when the Leader of the Opposition was the employment minister, when the Labor Party was in government—and I reported this to the House yesterday—one of the most remarkable statistics was the number of electricians that were granted 457 visas under the Labor Party, an increase of 400 per cent, to fill jobs that surely could have been filled by Australians.

On closer examination, it seems that there may have been some sense in the Leader of the Opposition's approach, because I presume that many of those electricians were trained in the use of generators. This was great foresight by the Leader of the Opposition to bring in a record number of electricians, because they are in hot demand—they are in hot demand in South Australia where the Labor Party there has turned off the lights and where other Labor Party administrations around the country are seeking to drive up electricity prices and punish pensioners because pensioners cannot afford to turn on the fans, let alone the air conditioners. But it was great foresight from the Leader of the Opposition to bring in these electricians because, if he becomes Prime Minister of this country, there will be many more electricians needed across the country to flick on those generators, because Labor is in a process of turning off the lights and driving Australians out of work.

Mr Joyce interjecting—

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mr Gosling interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister will cease interjecting. The member for Lalor and the member for Solomon are warned! The member for McMahon has the call.