Fraser Anning (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) to (6) on sheet 8602 together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 28, page 7 (line 16) to page 8 (line 3), omit subsections 322(3) and (4).

(2) Schedule 1, item 30, page 9 (lines 1 to 20), omit subsections 500X(4) and (5).

(3) Schedule 1, item 31, page 10 (line 19) to page 11 (line 3), omit subsections 966(5) and (6).

(4) Schedule 3, item 2, page 15 (line 21) to page 16 (line 10), omit subsections 61AA(8) and (9).

(5) Schedule 4, item 3, page 20 (lines 8 to 31), omit subsections 31A(7A) and (8).

(6) Schedule 4, item 5, page 23 (line 15) to page 24 (line 2), omit subsections 115CBA(7) and (8).

Amongst other provisions, the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Promoting Sustainable Welfare) Bill seeks to extend the waiting period for welfare proposed for new migrants. I congratulate the government on seeking to adopt my proposal to this. However, unfortunately, I have to advise that the current bill misses the mark. The existing, commendable government bill cracks down on welfare collection by recent arrivals in the general migration category; however, it very obviously neglects to address the problem of the so-called refugees, who are in fact the main offenders.

Unlike the migrants of earlier generations who came here to work and prosper, all too many of those who trek across the world posing as refugees go through one safe country after another simply looking for the most generous welfare handouts. Accordingly, I move the amendments to this bill to assist the government to target the main class of welfare seekers who wash up on our shores. In 2017, a Department of Social Services fact sheet advised that there were nearly 300,000 recent migrants in all categories relying upon work-age income replacement welfare. Since that time, with runaway levels of immigration, we can be reasonably confident that the numbers have increased substantially.

As a percentage of immigrants, that number is staggering and stands in stark contrast to the nation-building post-war Europeans who came here to work in our factories and fields and to help build the Snowy Mountains scheme. A 2017 report on a longitudinal survey of so-called refugees from the Rudd-Gillard boat people era who arrived here in 2013 showed that, five years later, 88 per cent relied on welfare payments as their main source of income. So much for self-reliance there. A 2011 study for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship found that so-called refugees were far more likely to be in receipt of Centrelink payments than other immigrant streams, with 85 per cent of reported humanitarian migrants relying on welfare, in contrast to 28 per cent of skilled migrants.

We have been treated to an unedifying sight of over a million Syrian so-called refugees in Europe, having left the safe haven of Muslim Turkey, trekking from one European country to the next in search of the continent's best handouts in Germany and Scandinavia. We have even had scores of illegal immigrants to Australia in Nauru refuse to be resettled in the United States because it has less generous welfare than Australia and they are expected to work. The sad truth is that freely available welfare is the pull factor in drawing fake refugees to our shores, as it the key draw for them to countries like Germany.

In days gone by, it was the case that recent arrivals were unable to claim welfare and were obliged to rely on themselves and Australian guarantors. Like the many hundreds of thousands of white South Africans eager to come here today, for them the opportunity to work and provide for themselves and their families in a safe and free country was everything they could want. They wouldn't have wanted a handout, even if it had been offered. The fact is that we should make welfare unobtainable for all migrants to Australia for the first few years and widely publicise the fact that we will strongly discourage the transnational parasites who currently travel around the world looking for a free ride through life at everyone else's expense. However, what we will encourage are the hardworking and self-reliant migrants that we want, the same sort of people who built this country in the first place. I commend my amendments to the Senate.