Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The evidence for this statement is found in the increase in ABNs during the Albanese government, with hundreds of thousands of new ABNs issued to new arrivals. These people then work and issue an invoice, which includes GST; keep all the money and send a chunk overseas—an $11 billion a year chunk, mind you—and go home or, otherwise, turn into someone else, another ABN.

The measure the ATO uses is not ABNs issued. No, instead the ATO uses active ABNs—people who actually submit their BAS statement and pay the GST they've collected. Why doesn't the ATO tell us how many ABNs are outstanding? What a great way of hiding the problem. Cheating the system allows that person to work for less yet have more. They work for less yet retain more. They're not contributing taxes. How many jobs and how much income tax and GST on those earning are lost to this scam every year? I would suggest it's in the millions. The inquiry should ask the same question. How many people who were marching on the street to protect their livelihood, and those of their kids in future, are funding these people?

The Reserve Bank has advanced the argument that low-skilled arrivals reduce wages for our low-skilled workers, while skilled migration grows the pie for everyone. Skilled migration. I'm a migrant. I've got nothing against migration, but we have to have it under control, and not mass migration. A New Zealand paper looked at this in depth and found the same thing, with the skill level at which the person makes a positive contribution being either a trade qualification or a university degree. The study found the difference in earnings persisted across their entire working life, suggesting language and culture actually matter. That's what the people were saying in the streets of the capital cities and other provincial cities yesterday. Research from Denmark indicates migrants being paid lower wages persists across multiple generations. Clearly, if a company can pay lower wages or lower 'contractor payments' to migrants, it will. If it needs to force them to get an ABN to receive that lower income, it will. And, if the ATO lets them do that because this is not being policed, it will. This is a serious issue that the economics committee must inquire into.

Let's have a look at labour productivity growth. The government pretends it supports higher productivity, yet they'll never mention migration in relation to productivity. This is despite immigration having a direct impact on productivity through capital shallowing. My colleague Senator Whitten is going to address this point in detail, so stay tuned for his explanation of why need to look at term (d) in the terms of reference: labour productivity growth.

Next, (e), the accuracy of government projections on immigration numbers. This term of reference, in relation to the accuracy of government projections on immigration numbers, is vital. For the last five years, the Australian public has been completely gaslit on immigration forecasts. In every budget, the Department of the Treasury has repeatedly released immigration forecasts that were patently wrong. They're either so grossly incompetent in making these forecasts that Australia should be terrified these people are in charge of our economy, or they deliberately hid the extent of the mass immigration program from Australia.

In 2022-23, Treasury said we would expect 235,000 people to arrive under net overseas migration. We got 535,520 people arrive, more than double—225 per cent above. That's a pretty big error. In 2023-24, Treasury said we could expect 235,000 people to arrive; 445,640 arrived, almost double. In 2024-25, Treasury forecast net overseas migration would be 260,000. They then increased that to 340,000 halfway through the year. Data indicates the number for the year may be well over 400,000. Finance columnist Alan Kohler of the ABC lays it quite out well. He said that, on top of the forecasts, which are already extremely historically high:

… at least 800,000 more people came to live in Australia over the past four years than Treasury anticipated. That's more than three extra Hobarts.

That's been added to Australia's population over just four years above what the Treasury forecast. That's not the number of the incoming migrants; that is the size of the error—800,000, three Hobarts, in error. How the hell can people plan around the country? That's an unexpected shortfall of 320,000 houses above Treasury's forecasts.

The conduct of the Treasury demonstrates the government is unwilling to have an honest discussion with the Australian public about how many will come into this country each year. Thats what this inquiry is for—to lay out the data and the numbers and have an honest conversation with the Australian public about what the hell's going on. That's all we want. To the people who marched on the weekend: thank you for standing up for the country and drawing attention to this. These people would not be interested if it weren't for you. Thank you.