Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I concur with a lot of what Senator Stephens said, as I am another Australian of significant Irish descent and I had the opportunity to be with her on a recent trip to Ireland. She played the role of the Irish eyes by smiling all the time, and also provided an occasional bit of the local language, which was very impressive. One of the other things from Ireland that will lead on to the topic I want to talk about tonight, is their approach to the recent widening of the number of countries in Europe when the European Union expanded. There was the option for all of the existing countries to immediately allow workers from the new European countries to have the same rights to work in their country as all other people in the EU countries. They also had the ability to postpone that for two years. Ireland was one of the few that opened itself up straight away to migrant worker to come from those countries that had just joined the EU, even though there were fears that this would undercut wage rates because, broadly speaking, the workers were coming from poorer countries. I think that has been shown to be yet another part of the significant economic success that Ireland has enjoyed.

I mention that as part of noting an aspect of the government’s migration program, in which they seem to continually be refusing to provide or allow access to temporary unskilled workers from Pacific island nations. This approach puzzles me because we have such an enormous migration intake these days—over 157,000 permanent migrations next financial year—plus enormous numbers of temporary residency visa holders. An example is the working holiday visa, which last financial year had 104,000 people coming to and staying in Australia and being able to work for the significant period of one year. That program has also just been modified so people can stay in the one job for up to six months, instead of the previous three months, and, if they work for three or more months in a particular industry, such as agriculture or tourism, they can apply for another one-year visa.

So there is this approach where people who are from a range of countries, mostly European—including Ireland, I might say—are able to come here and do unskilled labour for prolonged periods and seasonal labour, particularly in the agricultural arena, but the government is saying no to workers coming from Pacific island nations to do the same thing. I think there is a real selectivity there that is not perceived well. I know from representations I have had from many people in the Pacific islands that it is not perceived well. Through the Pacific Island Forum, there have been specific requests from Pacific island nations for Australia to allow seasonal workers to come in from the Pacific islands to assist those countries in generating income for people in many of those small and economically struggling Pacific island nations. According to media reports from the government’s own core group, there has also been a recommendation to introduce a program for Pacific islanders. That has been opposed by the government. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, said:

Sucking cheap labour out of the Pacific I think is quite an undesirable policy ... I feel a bit uncomfortable about that.

There is no particular reason why the labour from the Pacific islands would be any cheaper when doing unskilled work in the areas that are having difficulty finding workers. That certainly applies to a number of primary industries. There is no reason why that labour would be any cheaper than labour from European countries and the few Asian countries that have the working holiday visa arrangements.

In the budget package that the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs released from her department today, she specifically pointed to the immense benefit to regional employers of the enhancements to the working holiday visa program. Broadly speaking, I agree with what she said there, but I again wonder why it is that we have this strong promotion and, in effect, expansion of working holiday visas for unskilled labourers or those doing unskilled work yet we have this continual refusal to allow people to come from Pacific island nations in our region to do the same thing. I think that is very unfortunate.

There is a Senate committee inquiry into this matter at the moment; I have not been able to participate as comprehensively in that as I would have liked, due to having too many other Senate committee inquiries to be part of, including the committee that I chair. I do not want to pre-empt what that committee might find, but I do note that the submission to that inquiry from Oxfam Australia strongly recommended the creation of a regulated seasonal work scheme between Australia and Pacific island countries. It notes a number of benefits, such as creating employment opportunities for the growing number of unskilled workers in that region without requiring permanent migration.

It is often forgotten that a lot of migration now is what is called ‘circular migration’, where people move to one place and then go back home or to a third or fourth place; they move around a lot. There are many more people coming into Australia each year on temporary residency visas than are coming in on permanent residency visas—I think about three times more. There has been a very big change in the nature of migration in Australia and many other countries. We create employment opportunities for countries in our region—many of which are Pacific island nations struggling hugely—and provide an additional source of remittances that make an important contribution to social and economic development in many of those countries. According to the Oxfam submission, a country such as Tonga, for example, has the extraordinary amount of 31 per cent of its GDP coming through remittances from Tongans working overseas. There are enormous numbers of overseas workers, for example, from Fiji—one of the larger economies in the Pacific islands. In 2004, Fiji recorded more than $F300 million in remittances, which was seven per cent of its GDP; quite possibly, the real figure is higher than that.

So migrant work is a very significant part of the economy of many of those nations and we should be supplying more opportunities for them, particularly given that the migrants we are taking are skilled. There is a real problem that Australia and New Zealand are, through our existing migration programs, attracting many of the skilled migrants from the Pacific, such as accountants, teachers, IT workers, doctors, nurses, other health professionals and even rugby players, who are attracted by better pay and career opportunities. Our country is quite happy to suck out the skilled workers, of which there is a shortage in Pacific island nations; but we are putting up a brick wall to unskilled workers, despite the fact that there is clearly an oversupply of them in those countries. Whilst there is a higher unemployment rate amongst unskilled workers in Australia, there is nonetheless no doubt that many industries—again, particularly those in the agricultural area—have difficulty finding unskilled workers. Some of that seasonal work is fruit picking and the like, but it is not just fruit picking; there is also fishing, forestry, and tourist industry work. These can all be seasonal, and industries in which people and employers find it difficult to find jobs.

We do need to have safeguards against exploitation, but I think comparisons with the horrible history—particularly that of my own state of Queensland—of kidnapping people from Pacific islands and forcing them to work on the cane fields and the like is not an adequate parallel. This issue concerns people who want to come and work here; it concerns people who would be able and required to go back home. As well as providing economic opportunities, I think it would assist in building some of the better links that we need to have with our Pacific island neighbours, who are in our region and yet are not often enough in our consciousness as being part of our region.

I urge the government to reconsider this approach. There are obviously benefits for Australia, but there are benefits for wealth creation for our wider region, and that is something that is in our national interest and is certainly in the interests of Pacific island countries. When they continue to see us encouraging in thousands and thousands of extra unskilled workers each year from Europe, and refusing to have people from Pacific islands, I think it sends a bad message. (Time expired)