Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Stronger Families and Stronger Communities) Share this | Hansard source

Migrant communities like mine understand the promise of Australia because we have lived it. My family, who arrived here from India, Burma and England with little more than determination, built lives, businesses and futures anchored in stability that this country once took for granted. My own maternal family could come here only because White Australia was abolished by the Holt government and finally dismantled under Whitlam and Fraser. That moment did not weaken Australia; it strengthened it. It opened the door to people who worked hard, played by the rules and made this country better.

That stability depends on an immigration system that is orderly, fair, transparent and centred on the national interest. The hard truth is that the current system is failing to meet that standard. It is too large, too chaotic and too vulnerable to exploitation by universities, labour hire operators and those who see migration not as a nation-building project but as a commercial product. When migration becomes a volume business rather than a values based program, pressure falls hardest on the communities who welcomed newcomers first: migrant suburbs where housing is already strained, schools are crowded and job competition is real. People who have journeyed across the world to make Australia home know better than most that citizenship is earned, not purchased. They understand the value of secure borders, clear expectations and a program that prioritises contribution, cohesion and capacity over raw numbers. They know that rapid, unmanaged growth risks social fragmentation, wage suppression and reduced trust between communities who should be standing together. This is the task before this parliament, and migrant communities expect us to get this right.