by leave—I move:

That this House:

(1) agrees that Australians deserve a migration system in which they can have confidence, and of which migrants can be proud to be part, one that strengthens our economy, fills critical skills gaps, eases pressure on housing and essential services, and helps build a better Australia;

(2) condemns the Government for allowing unprecedented levels of migration to place unsustainable pressure on housing, infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals, and making it harder for Australians to buy a home;

(3) notes the Opposition's plan to reduce net overseas migration to 100,000 a year for the first two years and reduce the number of temporary visa holders by around 650,000 over four years;

(4) acknowledges the Opposition's commitment to raise migration standards by prioritising skilled migrants who meet Australia's genuine workforce needs; and

(5) recognises the Opposition's plan to strengthen the integrity of the migration system by ensuring temporary visas are genuinely temporary and reducing opportunities for visa hopping.

Australians deserve a migration system in which they can have confidence and of which migrants coming to Australia can be proud to be part—one that strengthens our economy, fills critical skills gaps, eases pressure on housing and essential services and helps to build a better Australia, as has our migration system for decades. But for too long under Labor, under this government, our migration numbers have been too high and the standards have been too low. This must change, and that's why the coalition have announced our plan to put in place the largest cut to migration in Australian history and to deliver more homes for Australians in order to take pressure off roads, schools and hospitals.

We will fix our migration program and bring in only the skills that Australia needs whilst delivering a budget-neutral package that protects the economy and the federal budget. We will take back control of our migration system and ensure that it works for Australia by bringing in the right people in the right numbers, with a focus on the skills that Australia needs and on the values of those coming here. We want migrants that are coming to Australia because of what this country is—not those who would seek to change it into something else. The Liberals and Nationals have fixed Labor's migration messes before, and we will do it again if the Australian people reward us with government once more.

The problem is pretty clear. Since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was elected to office, in just over four years, Labor has brought in some 1.5 million additional migrants to Australia, which is roughly the population of Adelaide. Even Labor premiers around the country, like New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, have agreed that this has simply been too many too quickly and has put pressure on our social infrastructure.

For every year that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in power, net overseas migration has been higher than even his own government's budget papers suggested it would be. The scale and speed of Labor's migration surge has changed our way of life. It is unforgivable because it is putting pressure on housing, infrastructure, schools, roads and hospitals, and perhaps most grievously of all it is making it harder for young Australians to buy a home of their own. Labor has lost control of our borders and broken the integrity of our migration system, and that is why our plan is so important.

We will cut net overseas migration to 100,000 for the first two years, rising slowly after that. We will bring in highly skilled migrants that better meet Australia's needs by prioritising the skilled people and the skilled partners that we need, particularly when it comes to our construction and agricultural sectors. We will protect migration into the regions, particularly through the Working Holiday Maker program with an exemption for regional areas. Australians in regional areas like mine can't afford to run businesses dependent on some lottery scheme run by bureaucrats here in Canberra. We must maintain the integrity of that labour supply to regional Australia.

Equally, we will refocus our tertiary education sector and stop them selling visas and return them to selling quality education. It is simply unforgivable that universities have become—

An honourable member: Businesses!

Exactly. I take the interjection, and I absolutely agree with it because they have become places where folks from overseas are buying their way into Australia rather than buying a decent education. Worse still, they're displacing, in some cases, Australians from those very courses. We will abolish temporary graduate visas. We will take back control of our migration system by requiring second and subsequent applications to be made offshore. It's not to say that foreign students who come to Australia to study won't ever be able to make it through our skilled migration pathways, but they should have to return home and make an application on their merits to do so.

Finally, we will put values at the centre of our migration policy once more. We will cut the numbers. We will raise the standards. We'll take back control, and we will put Australia first because that's what any decent government should be doing.

Is the motion seconded?

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

I rise as the member for Barton, and the name of my electorate is never lost on me. Sir Edmund Barton, our first prime minister, led a government that built the White Australia policy. More than a century later, the seat that carries his name is represented by an Australian with Sri Lankan and Papua New Guinean background raised by a Maltese and Italian family. If that isn't progress, I don't know what is. From Hurstville to Kingsgrove, Rockdale to Earlwood and Bexley to Clemton Park, my community is the proof that migration is the story of modern Australia. It is in our clinics and our classrooms, our aged-care homes and our building sites. It is in the nurse finishing a night shift at St George Hospital and the tradie pouring a slab for a new home out in Hurstville. Those are the people this debate is really about.

Before I entered this place, I spent over a decade as an employment lawyer. I represented workers as well as employers across construction, health care and also hospitality. I saw what a well-run system can do, and I saw what happens when it is rorted dodgy operators: exploited workers and honest businesses undercut. So I say this: a migration system must be fair. It must have integrity, and it must serve the national interests. That is what this Labor government is delivering. We have brought net overseas migration down by 45 per cent from its post-pandemic peak and we've held the permanent program at 185,000. We've tightened student visa integrity, shut down the dodgy providers and closed the loopholes that let people hop from visa to another. We're cracking down on rogue migration agents, we're introducing a 'no further stay' condition on visitor visas and we're using limited ministerial directions to prioritise the sectors Australians depend on, including health care, construction, defence and agriculture.

We're also getting the right skills to the right places. We've invested $85 million so migrants qualifications are recognised faster. Our fast tracked skills assessments have already made more than 20,000 migrants available to work in the construction trades. Labor has tripled the number of construction visas. In health care, the results speak for themselves. Skilled visa grants in the sector have more than doubled from 44,000-odd in the last four years to June 2022 to 101,000 or so since. Nurses and midwives account for more than 41,000 of those grants, and, for personal carers who look after our parents and grandparents, grants went up from 88 in the coalition's last four years to 6,838 under Labor.

Now compare it with the alternative. The coalition would slash net overseas migration to a hundred thousand and abolish the temporary graduate visa and bridging visas. That's not a plan for the national interest. There are no costings. It is a plan to win votes back from the fringe. Think about what it means for the people in Barton. Hospitals and aged-care homes in my community rely on the workers on those very visas. If you remove them, the jobs do not disappear. They become vacancies, and vacancies become patients waiting longer for a doctor, a test or an aged-care bed, and there is the contradiction. They promised the biggest migration cut in Australian history while promising to increase skilled visas by a hundred thousand. They would reintroduce the Morrison government's agriculture visa, which in its time delivered not a single visa.

You cannot cut deeply and grow at the same time. Labor's approach is different. It's orderly, it's fair, it's targeted and it's built on a simple principle: temporary visas for those who come temporarily, permanent visas for those who stay and departure for those who no longer have a right to be here. It keeps faith with our obligations to genuine refugees and it puts Australian workers first. My community has always understood that a country can be both welcoming and well managed. This Albanese Labor government is proving it.

Australians deserve a migration system that they have confidence in, that strengthens our economy and that fills genuine skills shortages in construction, aged care and agricultural backpackers. They also deserve a migration system that brings people to Australia who want to contribute to our communities and our way of life. But, under the Albanese Labor government, that is not what we have seen. For too long the numbers have been too high and the standards have been too low, and the pressure on Australian communities has grown and grown. Since Labor came to office, about 1.5 million additional migrants have come to Australia. That is an extraordinary number of people in a short period of time.

While targeted migration can deliver enormous benefits to our country, right now too many Australians are struggling to get into the housing market. Birthing services and GP clinics are closing, roads are falling apart, and hospitals are struggling to meet the demand. These pressures are being felt right across the country, including in regional South Australia. When the hospitals are under pressure in our cities, you can imagine how much attention regional hospitals are getting—absolutely nothing. The pace and scale of that growth must be matched by our capacity to provide housing infrastructure and essential services. Regional communities understand the importance of migration. Our industries rely on workers and on backpackers to keep businesses operating, bring in the harvest, provide health care and aged care and support tourism and hospitality, particularly in the outback.

Just one example of Labor's mishandling of migration is the schemozzle they have made of the Working Holiday Maker program, which has created uncertainty for industries that rely on these workers. Working holiday-makers, also known as backpackers, drive our chaser bins, help our harvests, keep regional pubs and cafes operating and support tourism businesses that are vital to local economies. Labor's failure to manage the backpacker visas has left regional employers facing greater uncertainty during the most important time of the year.

The coalition's Australia-First Migration Plan sets out a clear path to reducing migration, raising standards and restoring the integrity of our migration system. We will reduce net overseas migration to 100,000 people a year in the first two years, before allowing it to recover to 160,000 in year 4. This will help ease pressure on housing and services, while ensuring migration levels are more closely aligned with Australia's capacity and workforce needs. But cutting the numbers is only part of the solution. We must also raise the standards and ensure our migration program is delivering the skills Australia actually needs. That means prioritising skilled migrants who can fill genuine shortages, including in construction, health care, aged care and other essential industries.

Our regional hospitals and healthcare services need skilled professionals. Our tourism and hospitality operators need staff. Our ag businesses need workers during harvest, including right now in my own part of the world in regional South Australia. We can bring overall migration numbers down while still ensuring regional businesses can access the workers they genuinely need. We also need to restore integrity to the temporary visa system. That means closing loopholes, cracking down on visa hopping and ensuring temporary visas are used for their intended purpose.

Stopping universities from being visa shops.

I'll take the interjection. Migration should strengthen our economy, not add unsustainable pressure to housing and essential services. It should also ensure Australian businesses can access the workers they need, while making sure Australians are not left competing for scarce housing and stretched public services. It should rebuild confidence in a migration system that has lost trust for many Australians. For regional communities like those across Grey, getting the settings right is particularly important. We need a migration system that understands the difference between uncontrolled population growth and the skilled workers who help our regional communities survive and grow. The coalition has put forward a plan to cut the numbers, raise the standards and restore integrity in our system—one that works for our economy, our communities and our future.

The Albanese Labor government is not afraid of hard conversations, and we are willing to have a respectful and constructive discussion about migration. We believe migration enriches our country. It should not be used as a tool to sow division for political gain. We are making tailored and targeted changes to our migration system to give us more control over who arrives, who stays and who leaves. We're closing the loopholes that see our migration system manipulated for unintended purposes and tightening the rules so that visas mean what they say. Importantly, our reforms do not change our annual humanitarian intake, which remains a vital chance for people that are displaced by conflict and persecution to rebuild a safer life here in Australia, and people already in Australia will continue under the arrangements from when they arrived. These are good and progressive reforms.

The reality is that we have an ageing population. According to the Intergenerational report 2026, even with skilled migration, deaths in Australia are projected to outnumber births by the 2060s. The number of Australians aged 85 and over is expected to triple in the next 40 years, driving increased demand for health and aged care. The report also states that skilled migration will continue to play an important role in the workforce, including in the care economy. Without adequate migration, Australia has a real and growing workforce issue. Drastic cuts to migration would leave Australia without the people who staff our hospitals and our aged-care homes, build our houses and transport food and goods across our country.

As the politics of division increasingly permeate our daily lives, there has never been a more important time to reflect on what it means to be Australian and on what it takes to create a socially cohesive society. One of our greatest strengths is our diversity. Our modern nation has been built by people of all faiths, cultures and backgrounds. Australia has never been a monoculture. Our history begins tens of thousands of years ago with the world's oldest continuous culture, comprising hundreds of distinct First Nations languages, customs and beliefs. Since Federation, successive generations of migrants have enriched the fabric of Australian society, and nowhere demonstrates this more than my area of the Illawarra. Multiculturalism strengthens our nation, and it deserves to be celebrated and embraced. As a country, we are at our best when we come together with mutual respect and understanding. It is incredibly disheartening when our differences are weaponised to divide us.

As elected representatives, we have a responsibility to keep our multicultural communities safe. Both the Indian and Muslim communities in my electorate have told me they fear for their safety. University students, refugees and women who wear a hijab, in particular, are scared. One community leader said that, over the 40 years that she has been here in Australia, she has never felt such levels of hatred targeted at her community. These are people who have chosen Australia. They work hard and they want to give back to their communities, but they are feeling afraid because of these toxic debates. Countering this threat to our multicultural success story is crucial. I believe we are all united in a common pride in being Australian, and that must be underpinned by a commitment to respect—

Member for Kennedy!

belonging and shared responsibility for creating a harmonious community, Member for Kennedy. Every person, regardless of their faith or cultural background, deserves to feel welcomed, valued and empowered to contribute to our society. This is how we build a more inclusive, cohesive and fair Australia for all. It's what supports a prosperous community, a thriving economy and a safe and secure home.

There's rising instability across the world. The wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine, the impacts of a changing climate, horrific natural disasters and the increasing prominence of social media are reshaping the world as we know it. The rise of far-right and far-left extremism and the spread of mis- and disinformation are placing further strain on the bonds that hold our community together. When a community's sense of security and identity is challenged, trust and connection begin to fracture. In times of uncertainty, we need to focus on what unites us: our shared commitment to fairness, kindness and opportunity for all. When we choose empathy over division, respect over fear and kindness over hate, we reinforce the sense of belonging that helps our communities to thrive.

With all due respect, Madam Speaker Lawrence, this lady must have come from overseas, because this is not the reality of Australia.

That's so charming! So charming!

Ninety-two per cent of the migrants are going to Sydney and Melbourne. There are no jobs. All the industries are closed. You people and the Liberals closed down the motor car industry. It's gone.

The member for Kennedy will pause. Can you please just direct your remarks through me.

I'm sorry. Yes, you're right, Madam Speaker. The motor car industry is gone, taking tens of thousands of workers with it. The underwear industry is gone, taking thousands of workers with it. There are no industries left in Sydney, Australia. The petrol industry has gone. All the refineries are closed here in Australia. So you're funnelling them into two cities where there's no accommodation. They are not becoming Australians. They're living in ethnic enclaves, and a group of them hate Australians and will never become Australians, and every Australian knows that. If the Labor Party continues down this path, they've got a big annihilation coming. A big annihilation is coming.

Every week of my life I've asked probably 100 people: 'If you were the boss of Australia, what would you do?' Every single one of them—over 300—mentioned migration. Only three didn't mention migration. It is the burning issue out there, and so it should be. You're bringing half a million people into Australia each year; you conveniently leave out the student visas. There are 250,000 people coming on student visas, and 50,000 go home each year. They conveniently quote immigration figures and leave out the student visa figures.

The chairman of the board of Universities Australia said to me 20 years ago, 'If you stop the universities from being visa shops, then you will close half the universities in Australia.' Let's not talk about migration, let's talk about the universities needing this money to continue. The cost to Australia is people going to Sydney and Melbourne, where there's no accommodation and no work, and they are just on the public benefit, both in the area of housing and in the area of social welfare. These are realities. The ALP must be living on another planet. If ever I've seen a government going in for one big hell of a hiding, it's this mob. Take a look at the polls on migration. If you doubt my word, take a look at the polling. If you've got a policy where you farm them all into Sydney and Melbourne—there are two people I'm not going to name in the ALP, they've been great heroes up to date because they've been farming the migrants into electorates in Sydney and Melbourne where they can get control of the ALP and, hopefully, control of Australia.

Those two people in the ALP are now pariahs, thank goodness, because I think they're both very evil people. I am very solemn to ever use that description in the parliaments that I've been in in 52 years. I use the word evil because they are destroying the country to benefit themselves personally. Their power within the ALP has been built upon this migration coming into Sydney and Melbourne. There's no accommodation and no work for them. What the hell is going on here? I'll tell you what's going on here: a power grab by two people in this parliament. One is in the Senate, and one is in the House of Reps. My spies inside the Labor Party—my friends inside the Labor Party—tell me that, now, they just want to kill them both. They had big popularity and all this power, but, now, the ALP, quite rightly, is turning on them. That's not the message that's going out there into the public arena, nor should it be.

The Liberals started this, flagrantly lying to the Australian people. When you leave out the student visa numbers, you are flagrantly lying to the Australian people. There might be 200,000 coming in each year under migration visas—various ones. There, again, they quote the migration visas. There are about 20 categories of visa by which you can get into Australia. (Time expired)

The time allotted for the debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next setting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:24