Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks, Senator Ghosh, for your question. I think it's an important one.

Australia doesn't have a race based migration system, and nor should we. We dealt with that as a nation 60 years ago. Over the years, Australia has become a great multicultural nation—a place that is world-renowned for its welcoming and accepting attitude towards people from all corners of the globe. We're a modern nation that has benefited from our multiculturalism. Over the decades, migrants to Australia have made incredibly important economic contributions to our country, like the vital trade ties developed with the world and the skills and investment they have brought to our shores. But there are also the benefits you can't measure on a Treasury graph. The cultural impact of living alongside people from different backgrounds and of experiencing different perspectives through welcoming new people to Australia cannot be overstated.

Of course, a growing population needs homes and infrastructure to cope, and that's why the Albanese government has invested so heavily in the housing and infrastructure needed by those living in and moving to Australia. Those efforts to build more homes and infrastructure have been opposed every time by a coalition that did nothing to increase housing supply during its wasted decade in office and now seeks to blame migrants for housing pressures in Australia. The coalition has spent this week dog-whistling and foghorn-blowing to stoke division in our community on migration. The so-called Liberal Party is so busy looking for someone to blame that it has forgotten that half of all Australians were born overseas or have parents born overseas.

Australians know we are strongest as a nation when we stand together, not look for reasons to build walls between each other. And the Albanese government and Labor will always strengthen the unity that makes Australia the best country in the world.