Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Vanstone. Will the minister inform the Senate of the benefits to Australia of current immigration policies, especially the impact that immigration has on creating jobs? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question. The difference between the government and the opposition in the conduct of immigration policies is very clear. The coalition government has always favoured skilled migration because skilled migration builds and secures Australian jobs and secures Australian business. Labor has always had a different focus. What they have done is tried to build constituencies to get re-elected. They have not had an interest in whether the people coming into Australia would be good for Australia and would be able to get a job. Barry Jones let the cat out of the bag when he said:

The handling of—

immigration—

by the previous Government was less than distinguished ...

He went on and said this was:

partly because immigration was seen as a tremendously important element in building up a long term political constituency. There was that sense that you might get the Greek vote ‘locked up’, or the Chinese vote ‘locked up’ ...

So there is the difference. We bring in people that will help business grow and help generate Australian jobs, and the Labor Party has always sought to bring in people who they think will get them re-elected. Skilled migrants have always done better under us. Sixty-four percent of primary skilled migrants arriving between 1993 and 1995 had a job within six months. If you look at what happened to the group that came in between 2004 and 2005, Mr President, you will see that 84 per cent had a job within six months. In other words, we bring in people who we believe will be able to get a job. Mr Beazley, in November 2005, tried to tell Australian parents that they were right to worry about ‘foreigners coming in’ to take their children’s jobs—because the foreigners were not coming in to vote for him. In 1995-96, which was Labor’s last year, they brought in 24,000 skilled migrants; now we have nearly 100,000 skilled migrants bringing in skills to build Australian companies and to build Australian jobs.

You might notice, Mr President, what has happened to the unemployment rate while we have been bringing in skills. The unemployment rate has been going down. Under the coalition we have had record employment. There are now 10.3 million people in work. Since 1996 we have created more than 1.9 million jobs—more than one million of them full time. Let us go back and compare our record on employment to that of the previous government. That is what immigration is about—it is about building business and building jobs. In February 1992 Mr Beazley was the employment minister. He said it was heartening that unemployment was 10.2 per cent. He was heartened that 10.2 per cent of Australians could not get jobs!

Unemployment got worse under the previous government. It peaked at 10.9 per cent in December, when Mr Beazley was still the employment minister. In 1996, when we took over, the unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent. It is now 4.8 per cent. Skilled immigration has played a role in the unemployment rate being the lowest it has been in 30 years. Skilled immigration increases our competitiveness. We only have to look at the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report to see how immigration policies can make a tremendous difference. With a well organised skilled migration visa—with the flexibility of, for example, a 457 visa—we can build our competitiveness to our advantage over countries that do not have that. What should that tell Labor? It should tell the Labor Party—

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh no, I have plenty more to say on this. In particular I have quite a bit to say about the interests of the states in this matter. Skilled migration, both temporary and permanent, builds Australian jobs. As I said the other day, Mr Clinton used to say—(Time expired)

Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the minister further inform the Senate of the benefits of the current migration policies of the government.

Amanda Vanstone (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGauran. The benefits of the current system, where we work not in cooperation with ethnic communities to build our vote but in cooperation with the states to bring in the people they need to get their factories and their businesses going well are that we have cooperative federalism. The states and territories—all with Labor governments—are working in close cooperation with the Australian government in this matter. At the moment we have some skills expos in London, Manchester and Dublin. Mr President, you might be surprised to know, given what you hear from Labor opposite, that every Labor state and territory has a booth at those stalls. They are up there saying: ‘Come on down!—and come quickly; come in on a 457 visa. We need you. We want our factories to churn out the goods. We want our people to get more jobs.’ They are all there. It is a fair bet that the state and territory governments went to the skills expo we had in India, which I am sure the federal opposition would not have done. (Time expired)