Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The debate on the Migration Amendment (Employer Sanctions) Bill 2006 allows us to reflect on the generous, sensitive and very welcoming migration policy that Australia has adopted over many years. I suggest that the Menzies era of Australian government was the era when Australia opened up its doors and welcomed in migrants from all over the world. Mr Acting Deputy President, you may recall that, when Australia first became a Commonwealth, much to its shame this nation had in place what was loosely referred to as the ‘White Australia policy’, a policy that the Labor Party and no doubt the Greens—had they been around then—and certainly the communists, who were the forerunners to the Greens, would have supported. The White Australia policy was something that, in effect, the unions, the Labor Party, the communists—the forerunners to the Greens—would have supported. It was the enlightened Menzies government that opened up the doors to immigration. I have to say, though, that the recent debates on the 457 visas have shades of the White Australia policy coming back into those arguments. I am sometimes concerned that those opposing the 457 visas do so on the basic premise that certain classes of people should not be allowed into Australia because they might be working harder than some Australian workers.

The government’s generous, sensitive and welcoming migration arrangements are world-class. I congratulate the current Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Vanstone, and the previous minister, Mr Ruddock, on the work they have done in very difficult circumstances to encourage people to our shores. We have one of the most generous refugee schemes in the world. I think that, per capita, Australia is right up there amongst any other nation in terms of the generosity of our refugee schemes. What we do not encourage are those who queue jump, those who do not follow the processes, those who try to get an advantage by turning up on our doorstep and not waiting their turn as hundreds of thousands do around the world.

The bill before us will provide for sanctions against those employers, labour suppliers and others who knowingly and recklessly employ illegal workers or refer them for work. So I would imagine there could be no opposition whatsoever to this bill. The bill deals with some very serious issues in Australian society but it does so with an eye to ensuring that only those employers and labour suppliers who are of genuine concern will be affected by the offences for which this bill provides. The bill is the product of a long period of consultation and development and deserves the support of all senators in this chamber. The arrangements provided for in the bill prevent the majority of potential illegal workers from entering Australia in the first place. Australia has a very good system of dealing with issues before they become problems. This bill simply adds to the good work that the Australian government has done in recent years in all areas of the immigration debate.

Some speakers in this debate have made the sorts of wild claims that we have come to expect from the Labor Party, the Greens and the Democrats. Senator Bartlett said that education and training for immigrants was grossly underfunded. That is simply contrary to the facts. These are the sorts of words that fall out of the mouths of those trying to make a political point, but rarely do they look at the facts. Under this government, education and training has been substantially increased over many years. This is no better emphasised than by the technical colleges bill that was recently passed by the Senate.

Senator Nettle, in her usual emotive language, which usually lacks a bit of fact—you have to give her credit for her use of English language and the adjectives she uses—talked about ‘brutal treatment’ in detention centres, people being ‘ruthlessly exploited’ and used as ‘slave labour’. The use of such Orwellian language will engender the closed fist salute from some of the rallies that Senator Nettle attends but it is quite contrary to the basic arrangements for immigration detainees in Australia. If there had been brutal treatment of these workers in detention centres, one would think that that brutal treatment would have been investigated by the authorities and the police and something would have been done about it. Of course, the detention centres are very well run. They have been the subject of quite a deal of inspection and investigation over recent years. In nearly every case, with some very minor exceptions, they have come up with a clean bill of health.

Senator Nettle used an argument that these people are employed as slave labour and she quoted from the act, which says that they may ‘voluntarily engage in employment in a detention centre’. If they are being treated as slave labour, if they are being brutally treated or ruthlessly exploited, one wonders why these detainees would volunteer for work in the detention centres. So one wonders at the agenda of some of those who use this sort of inflammatory and emotive language to talk about an issue which has in fact been very well run, very sensitively run, by a succession of Australian government ministers since 1996.

I mentioned before that in the debate on the section 457 visas shades of the White Australia principle were coming through in some of the speeches opposing the section 457 visas. That arrangement is an exceptionally good one for Australia, and I raise as often as I can the situation of a couple of meat processing factories—a goat processing factory in Charleville and a wild pig and kangaroo processing factory next door to it—that have enormous export markets available. The goat processing factory can sell everything it produces to very good markets in the United States and there is no worry about tariffs; the free trade agreement looks after that. It is a great business and a huge fillip for that small town of Charleville in south-west Queensland, which is part of my electorate.

The factory currently employs 150 people, and 25 of those people are Vietnamese families who have been brought in on section 457 visas. They have been brought in simply because the owners of the factory could not get enough labour to continue to process the demand for their product. The organisation has applied for additional section 457 visas and, although the minister and the department have been slow in processing them, I certainly hope they will eventually get there and allow additional Vietnamese workers to enter Australia to help out the company and to help out and contribute to life in that small western town of Charleville in Queensland. Next door to the goat processing factory is a kangaroo and wild pig processing factory. Again, they have more export demand than they can cope with, but the only thing holding them back is the availability of labour. If there are people who are genuinely seeking work, I am sure they would be welcomed with open arms in just these two establishments in south-western Queensland.

I certainly urge the minister and the department to process the section 457 visas as quickly as possible. I understand that, because they have been under some unrelenting attacks from the opposition in all of its forms in recent times, the department hastens slowly to make sure they carefully assess all the applications, and that, of course, takes time.