I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Australians only have to wait another 324 days until the next election, on 7 August 2027. That is the first possible date for the next federal election. It's just 324 days of waiting for Australian voters until they get an opportunity to cast a verdict on the performance of this Labor government. If the Australian Labor Party was a car, it would be called a jalopy or a clunker. The wheels are falling off, the rain is getting in, the equipment is faulty, and the engine can't be relied upon. This has been a bad week for the Labor government. Labor luminary Bill Kelty had some very insightful things to say about the performance of the Labor prime minister and the Labor treasurer, and I'll come to them in a moment. The Prime Minister's colleagues and the Treasurer's colleagues have been backgrounding anonymously, as you'd expect, about their performance on the economy. I'll come back to that. Of course, today we had a very, very necessary backdown by the Labor Party, by the Labor government, in regard to a very, very poor, heartless, harmful policy decision that would have hurt veterans and their families, and the coalition welcomes the decision by the government today to back down on its plan to hurt veterans with a $5,000 cap on their ability to access allied health services.

Then we had a very half-hearted defence by Senator McAllister, representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, trying to defend the Labor government's very, very poor policy decision to hurt 1.3 million pensioners by abandoning the private health insurance rebate that is available to people over the age of 65. My great prediction is that that is now the next battleground, having successfully secured the government's decision to back down on its harmful, hurtful treatment of veterans and their families. On that particular point, I want to make this observation. It is powerful when Independent senators work with Greens senators and work with coalition senators, coming to parliament, amplifying the concerns and the voices of veterans and their families, forcing the government to a very significant rethink. I remind you that on every occasion in this Senate that Labor senators had to stand with coalition and independent and Greens senators against this policy initiative, they chose to vote for—

Senator Smith. Please resume your seat. Senator O'Neill?

I have a point of order. Perhaps you could clarify for me which question it is that Senator Smith is giving his speech to, because there were no questions about these matters today.

Normally we do give a fair bit of latitude in these remarks. However, I will ask you to make sure you are relating your comments to a particular question, Senator Smith.

Senator, O'Neill, perhaps you were late for question time because the first question time today was from Senator Gatenby, the new senator from Tasmania, on the private health insurance rebate. You either weren't here or you weren't paying attention. Really! This is why my grand prediction is that the next battleground that will force the Labor Party into a significant policy retreat is its plans to slug 1.3 million pensioners by abandoning the private health insurance rebate that they're currently entitled to. That is a plan that will hurt pensioners and add older people to state hospital waiting lists.

It is unfair. It is unmodeled. It's another demonstration how the Labor Party does not care for people in our community. On every occasion in this Senate people like Senator O'Neill, Senator Polley, Senator Stewart—they all voted to retain Labor's hurtful, harmful $5,000 cap on allied health support services for veterans and their families. How outrageous. There just 324 days until the next election. With the brief minutes available to me, let me just remind people what Bill Kelty had to say about Labor at the moment. He said that it is ridiculous that the Treasurer carries on the way he does with his economic policies. (Time expired)

I rise to make a contribution with regard to the question that was asked about migration reforms, a very important announcement today. Australians like me—decent, law-abiding Australians—understand that a visa is an important document. I say this very clearly. If you want to come to Australia temporarily, you should apply for a temporary visa. If you want to be here permanently, you should apply for a permanent visa. If you are not entitled to a visa or your visa runs out, you should leave. This is a very simple proposition. This is what ordinary, decent Australian citizens, which includes migrants from all around the world who play by the rules and who accept the rule of law in this country, all believe. It's not an unreasonable ask. This is the important announcement that has been made today to clarify that position. We are making changes to give us more control over who arrives, who stays and who leaves.

Australia is indeed a great multicultural nation, and I see, from people in the chamber here, that many of you will be sharing with me in the celebration of the diversity that gives us incredible advantages and trading right across the world. Multiculturalism isn't our problem, but abuse of these visas by people who have tried to take a loan of the goodness of Australian people is something we need to change.

We're making changes to Working Holiday Maker, and the reason that that has to happen is to make sure that it is sustainable and that the support that's needed in regional Australia is able to be delivered by people who are staying within the rules, not the ones who are abusing their visa and who should leave the country because they no longer have a right to be here. Australia supports the Working Holiday Maker program, but it needs to be managed in a fair way to support our economy and to provide good experiences for people in Australia. It should not be pitting people in regional Australia against people in the cities. We need people to come in and help us, to fulfil the jobs that we have, and pitting one Australian against another, pitting one part of the country against another, is a technique we're seeing from the Liberal-National Party joined in by One Nation.

The new ballot arrangements that have been announced are going to improve the fairness, the transparency and the sustainability of visa allocation processes where there's more demand than there are places. These reforms will help ensure that the program continues to meet genuine labour market needs to support both regional Australia and businesses in the city that need this labour. We need to undertake these changes to reduce the risk of worker exploitation and to contribute to sustainable migration outcomes.

Many of those who come to Australia on a student visa come here for the duration of their course. They complete their studies and then they depart. This is the expectation when a student visa is granted. But unfortunately we've seen the prevalence of this practice of visa hopping among people on student visas. They've created a cohort of what you could call 'permanent temporary migrants'. It's not sustainable. They hop from one visa to the next to try to stay in Australia. You can understand why they want to stay, but they need to understand that if you are not entitled to a visa or your visa runs out then you should leave. Today we made that very clear, and the government will continue to protect the interests of Australia and our economy. (Time expired)

There are a few things I've heard today from the government, a few key phrases, about the migration problem. We just heard, 'Give us more control.' That's because Labor has lost control of the borders, and it's taken them four years to work out that they've lost control of the borders. We heard from Senator Farrell today that there's been a 47 per cent drop in NOM. Imagine how big it was before, if we still have mass migration. Imagine how big it was before, if we had a 47 per cent drop. They wouldn't give us that number. They gave us the 47 per cent, but they wouldn't give us the number it came down from. What do we hear? 'It's not sustainable.' I've heard that several times this afternoon. The Labor government is finally admitting that their migration program is not sustainable.

So of course they've come out today at the Press Club to say, 'We need more control,' and more control over temporary migration in particular. I'll tell you what that impact is going to have in the regions. They have not consulted with the farmers, who are already indicating that they have a shortage in their workforce and that the prices of food, fruit and vegetables may go up by Christmas time because they do not have the workforce they need to get that fruit and vegetables to the cities. And here we have the Labor government today saying they're going to cap working holiday-maker visas, which provide a huge part of the numbers we need out in those regions. But of course classic Labor: never consulting, making the decision first. Then they come out and hear what a stuff-up they've made.

There are loopholes in the migration system. That is absolutely correct. Almost three years ago the government articulated that there is a problem called 'permanent temporariness', where people come in on a temporary visa and cycle around on different visas trying to get permanent residency. In the meantime, we have a housing shortage, and they continue to bring more people in. We have inflation. We have a trifecta of economic problems here in Australia. And it's taken them four years to work it out. Well, here we are.

I want to move on to the private health insurance pensioner tax. The government are going to axe the additional private health insurance rebate for over-65s. That's going to be a huge hit on our older Australians. And I want to share something my colleague Phil Thompson, the shadow minister for defence personnel, said today. He realised that with the private health insurance tax that they're putting on older Australians—linked with what they're doing to the veterans at the moment with their allied health cap—they are taxing the people who built this country and the people who defended this country, defended the freedom of this country for us and our families. What contempt they are showing for the Australian people—what contempt! There is of course the impact, the pressure, that is going to put on our hospitals and our services. The wait lists are only going to get longer. But of course the Labor government did not ask the Australian people. They make decisions first and work out later that it is a bad idea. Well, we are here to tell them that they got it wrong again.