Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Ayres. Minister, last financial year your Labor government issued more than 350,000 new permanent resident visas and citizenships. This is the equivalent of adding nearly one and a half times the entire population of Hobart in just one year. Minister, how many new permanent visas and citizenships are you adding to Australia's population this financial year, which ends in just eight days?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd be delighted to answer the question, Senator Hanson, but I am not the responsible minister. I have no doubt Minister Watt is going to enjoy taking your question when he's ready to go.

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, I understand Minister Ayres is not the responsible minister, but I'll give you another opportunity. Would you like to redirect that question to Minister Watt?

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd love to. My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Watt.

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

Thank you, Senator Hanson. One inconvenient fact for the One Nation party is that this government has nearly halved net overseas migration since it spiked after the COVID epidemic. Most people in this country recognise that, during the COVID epidemic, essentially, migration into Australia ended. People couldn't come here. Most people recognise that after the epidemic migration skyrocketed because people were trying to get back into the country, including many Australians who were seeking to come back into our country. Also, of course, we inherited, when coming to office, a completely broken migration system that was left behind by Mr Peter Dutton. Do you remember Mr Peter Dutton, or have you erased any memory of him? So there was a broken migration system combined with a massive increase in migration post COVID. Ever since then, we have been working hard to fix the rorts and the other faults in the migration system, including around international student numbers.

What that has meant is that we have reduced net overseas migration by 45 per cent since it spiked—so nearly halved—and we're on track to reduce it even further. We recognise, as a government and as a party, that the migration numbers that we were seeing post COVID were unsustainable. They were too high and they needed to be brought down. What we also recognised was that, to house Australians—which is what the One Nation party often links with migration—we needed to build more homes. That's why, as a government, we have invested tens of billions of dollars into building more social and affordable homes for the battlers that Senator Hanson pretends she cares about. How did One Nation vote every time we tried to increase funding for housing? They voted no, along with the Liberal Party and the National Party. So don't come in here and lecture us about supporting houses for Australians, because you always vote against them. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, first supplementary?

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, Australia has been suffering under mass migration. Your government says you are cutting immigration, yet you've flooded the country with over two million arrivals since coming to government. The damage has been done. Your 45 per cent cut is too little, too late. Why are you using mass migration to paper over your abysmal economic management and disregarding the call from millions of Australians to stop it due to their standard of living being destroyed? Why are you waiting till 2027-28 to reduce it by up to 225,000? That is still too many. (Time expired)

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

Thanks again, Senator Hanson. As I said, this government has worked extremely hard over the last two or three years in particular to significantly reduce migration levels to much more sustainable levels. At the same time, we—unlike One Nation, unlike the Liberal Party, unlike the National Party—have supported increased investment in housing for the battlers that you pretend to care about. They're the battlers who need homes, and they're the battlers who you've voted against getting new homes funded by the government.

We make no apologies for the fact that we had to reduce migration numbers. They were unsustainably high post the COVID epidemic and post the rorts in the system that were left behind by the former coalition government. The changes that we have made are bringing migration back to a much more sustainable level than it has been at. The question for people like Senator Hanson is how they intend to obtain the hospital workers, the aged-care workers and the workers in various other industries that come from migrant backgrounds— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, second supplementary?

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, analysis of migration data shows that just 20 per cent of your 301,000 net overseas migrants in 2025 were skilled. That's before dealing with the fact that your skilled list includes occupations such as dog handler, hairdresser, gardener, golfer and migration agent. Minister, why is your government flooding Australia with 80 per cent of unskilled migration?

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

Well, some things don't change, do they? Senator Hanson, I know that it has always been your political agenda to try to divide Australians, to divide Indigenous Australians from other Australians and to divide other Australians from migrant Australians. This government will not engage in that kind of extreme division and chaotic argument that the One Nation party has been putting forward for the best part of 30 years. We saw from the National Press Club last week that One Nation's recipe for Australia is more division, more chaos and more cuts, and that is not something that this Labor government will stand for. This government is about bringing Australians together, not about dividing them from each other. We'll leave it to Senator Hanson, along with her friends in the Liberal Party and the National Party—because they are all the same, with a couple of rare exceptions—to continue with that division. That is not the Australian way. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) | Link to this | Hansard source

I advise the chamber that Senator Babet has passed his question to Senator Roberts.