Perin Davey (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm standing before you as the daughter of a migrant. I'm one of the 49 per cent of Australians who are either migrants themselves or children of first-generation Australians. So I cannot support this matter of public importance at all. I agree with Senator McKim. This matter of public importance fails to look at the real issues that we should be talking about, and one of those real issues is: how do we actually incentivise people to take the jobs that many of these migrants are taking in regional Australia? When I say that, I don't mean they're stealing our jobs, because they're not. They are coming here and voluntarily taking positions that are vacant right across rural and regional Australia. Without these migrants, our regional economies would be devastated. People in old-age homes in regional areas wouldn't have carers. Senator Hanson and Senator Keneally have said one in five chefs are migrants. Well, I bet those one in five are actually working in restaurants in regional Australia. Without them, it would be a very different place out there.

I'm very pleased to hear Senator Ciccone and Senator Walsh stand up and support migration because, like Senator McKim and Senator Scarr, I wasn't sure what Labor would say after reading Senator Keneally's opinion piece. Senator Keneally has concerns largely about temporary migration and temporary migrants. These are the very people who live and work in regional Australia, taking positions that have been languishing and vacant. Don't forget it's this government that brought in the labour market test so that employers can't just go and seek cheap overseas labour. Employers must prove that they can't source labour here onshore before they can apply for a temporary skilled visa, and I'm glad that they can do that.

Senator Keneally in her opinion piece didn't say anything about how you actually get Australians to take the jobs that she thinks we should now prioritise only for Australians, and I haven't heard a solution to that from Senator Hanson either. I've heard nothing about the importance of temporary migration in regional Australia from the Labor Party or from One Nation, and I just want to paint the picture to help Senator Keneally and Senator Hanson understand and learn a bit more about regional Australia, because there are many employers out there who have tried but can't. Regional Development Australia Murray used to run a temporary migration advisory service, and they used to get about 250 applications a year from their area alone seeking skilled migrants. These people fill positions such as nurses, aged-care workers and doctors. I live regionally, and, without skilled migration, I wouldn't have been able to see a doctor in my own town for several years.

I should add that the Nationals in government have also introduced two new regional visas for skilled workers which actually require them to come to regional Australia for three years before they can apply for permanent residence. It works because, once you come to regional Australia and once you see how good regional Australia is, you are more inclined to stay there. That's one thing that we are doing to incentivise new migrants to settle outside our big and congested cities. When we have migration, it's really important that it goes to the areas which need it most.

This matter of public importance raised today does not understand and gets the issue of migration wrong. Migrants, particularly working holiday-makers, are absolutely vital. We have heard about issues in the Northern Territory if we don't have seasonal holiday visa holders and working holiday-makers—and these people are not permanent migrants, admittedly, but are here visiting our nation, spending money in our nation and also helping us get our food and our produce harvested and onto our supermarket shelves. We've found examples where working holiday-makers who fill short-term shortages, particularly in these rural and regional areas, inject over $3 billion into our economy each year. They stay longer, they spend more and they travel further, and that is all good for our economy.

We are working to get our working holiday program right. It's something we're committed to. In the face of this COVID crisis, we have worked hard to extend visas for those who were already in the nation so that we can ensure that we keep people able to do our harvest jobs, able to work in the agricultural sector and able to fill those vacancies so that we can keep our businesses going. Bear in mind that at the moment our migration is currently zero in the face of COVID, and it's having a devastating impact on our economy.

Let's look at where our migration numbers go. Forty-seven per cent of our migrants in 2018-19 were international students. Does anyone seriously want to put 240,000 jobs at risk by slashing that $37 billion industry? We are already seeing, because of COVID-19, the devastating impact that the loss of these international students is having on our regional universities. In fact, Charles Sturt University has put a number on it. The impact could be as high as $80 million a year on that university's bottom line, and that has a flow on impact on our universities' capacity to undertake vital research programs. Twenty-two per cent of our net overseas migration is visitors to Australia, including to regional Australia—that is a $45 billion a year industry. Twelve per cent are skilled migrants. These are people who come here to fill the vacancies, who have the skills we need, who work significantly in regional Australia. They fill critical skills gaps right across the Australian workforce.

The Liberals and the Nationals in government are taking a sensible approach to migration. We have kept migration at 160,000. It is a cap, not a target, but it is also a responsible and realistic figure. We are focusing more and more on skilled migration. We have introduced the new regional visas to ensure that we get people out of our cities and into the bush, and we hope that they stay there.

Since the new temporary skills shortage program commenced—it replaced the shambolic and often abused 457 visa program—we have seen salaries increase. We have seen average remuneration that is $15,000 higher than what was being paid under the 457 program. Again, it was the Liberals and Nationals who implemented the labour market test to ensure that those people are filling a genuine skill shortage rather than being the cheap labour that this motion accuses Australian employers of undertaking.