That word salad was as coherent about private health insurance as anything I've ever heard. It's like a year 7 artistic dance version of private health insurance, that response. It was quite the thing. I want to go back to the issue of the day. We're talking about immigration. We heard the great immigration policy apparently, presented to the Press Club today by the Labor Party, but they didn't want to really get into it. They didn't want to go anywhere near the detail. They're out there saying, 'We're cutting these immigration numbers. We're going out there and we're fixing these numbers. We're going to pull this down.' They're taking these steps just to actually reach the target that they set for themselves. They're not pulling anything down. They're actually saying, 'We've been so incompetent for the rest of our time. We've got to do all these changes just to do what we'd said we'd do,' which is quite odd. You sit there and you say: 'There's our target. This is what we're going to do.' Well, they're not even close to it. They cut these numbers—let's get this reality on target here. Pre COVID, they talk about this drop from a peak. Guess what? After COVID, a lot of people wanted to come home. People that have not been able to come here for a couple of years couldn't get here. There was a peak after COVID of people coming to Australia. I don't blame them. But that was one year.

If you go the history of immigration to Australia pre COVID, it was roughly 190,000 people per year. That was number—198,000 per year. What has it been since Labor? Almost 400,000. It has been 398,000 people per year, double the amount which, historically this century, has been coming here, and they've set a target, and they can't even reach it, so they go, 'Look at these big changes. It's actually going to fix up the mistakes we've done,' and where are they doing it? They're doing it in all the wrong places. They're doing it on working holiday visas. Hear that working bit? The people that come here to do things, the working holiday visas, not the people that are coming here as the hangers on, not the leaners, not the leeches, not the bludgers—they're actually hitting the workers who want to come here and make a difference.

Here are the numbers. Year 2 working holiday visas are now a ballot. Imagine you're travelling with your partner or with your friend. One of you gets one, and one doesn't. Who knows what happens there. All the people—when you go to country pubs, who cooks your schnitty? Who pulls your beer? Who works in the fields? Who pulls these things in? These people that are important, because there's a generally—I won't say always—a regional compact to this. It's down to 45,000 from 57,000—a 12K cut in year 2. In year 3, it's down to 5,000 from 31,000. That is almost an 80 per cent cut there. That's what we're talking about here. They are taking these people away, and there is a real chance, because of your actions—the Farmers' Federation said today that we may have a food shortage because of the processing delays in getting these people in. If you can't process these people's visas to come here to go to regional areas, to pick the fruit, to bring in the crops and to help out the way they always have, we may not be able to have enough food come Christmas, because you're not doing your job right and you say to these people 'we're going to cut you because it's easy'. We're going to cut the builders, not the bludgers. We are going to cut the lifters, not the leeches. What a stupid policy that is.

We heard the answers today about how they're fixing some wrong, about how they're going to go and do this and fix some wrong. They are just merely trying to correct their own rubbish policies that have failed Australia, seeing double the immigration contact from the rest of this century since they have been in. That is not governing. That is an exercise in butt covering, and this needs to be better. This needs to have a system done. We need to bring in the people that our people need, not who want to come here just for the free ride.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by Minister representing the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (Senator Watt) to a question without notice asked by Senator Waters relating to migration.

Labor, today, announced a policy to build new immigration jails and to fund hundreds of additional uniformed Border Force officers to go knocking on people's doors, taking them away and putting them in the immigration jails run by a US private jail corporation. Then they come in here, and, when the Greens ask them a question about their lurch to the right on immigration, the minister steps up and says, 'I knew the Greens were going to compare Labor's policy to ICE and to Trump's policy in ICE.' Of course Labor knew because, literally, what Labor is doing here is picking up the Trump ICE playbook. They said loudly and proudly at the at the Press Club that Labor is going to reopen immigration detentions and build new immigration jails. We already know that Labor is contracting for all of its existing immigration jails with a US multinational bottom-feeder private jail corporation which is renowned for corrupting governments and abusing the rights of people in detention. That's who Labor already have a contract with for the existing prison system. Now they're getting that corporate mate of Trump to run new expanded prison jails here, and they're funding the prison a new uniformed Border Force team to go and knock on doors in suburban Australia and in towns across this country in the quiet of the night to put people in Labor's new immigration jails. And they wonder why we compare them to ICE.

This is extraordinary. This is what Labor has sunk to—actively reheating Tony Abbott's policies, only this time with a little mean twist of Donald Trump. If Labor doesn't want these policies compared to ICE, they shouldn't behave like ICE. If you don't want to be compared to Donald Trump, don't take his policies and apply them, funding them with public money. We know how to have a fast, effective and fair immigration program. It starts with processing substantive visas. It means fully funding Home Affairs to get over the backlogs, funding trusted legal bodies to assist with migration applications, not more jails. (Time expired)

Labor, the Liberals and One Nation have made migrants the bogeyman. Migrants are not the problem. Amy Remeikis put it aptly when she wrote that the 'fuss about migrants is just a painful hot-button topic looking for an issue'. That's how back-to-front this whole debate is.

Labor's changes today won't build a single new public home. They won't bring down the price of groceries. They won't bring down rent. They won't make Australia a fairer or better place to live in. But what they will do is this: they will hurt people, they will separate families, they will punish students, they will add to the fear and uncertainty that so many people on temporary visas face, they will make it harder for people to build a life here, and they will compound the racism and hate that migrants in this country are facing every single day. This is the Albanese Labor government's playbook: punish people with the least power so they never have to confront those with the most; pander to Pauline Hanson and the far right by punching down on migrants or disabled people—or people on Centrelink for that matter.

These changes will see new immigration jails run by the same multinational corporations overseeing human rights abuses here and abroad. They will see families ripped apart and people locked up. If Minister Burke doesn't want us drawing comparisons with ICE then he should stop introducing ICE-like policies. Across this country, we are seeing relentless efforts to divide and distract us. While politicians and the media point the finger at migrants, those who are destroying the planet for profit are gleefully rubbing their hands together. As a migrant myself, I say to the migrant communities in Australia and to the international students: the Greens have your back, and we will not let these heartless politicians reduce our lives to mere numbers.

Question agreed to.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) to a question without notice I asked today relating to migration.

Apologies, Minister Watt, I'll use fewer numbers next time. I know percentages can be hard. Labor's immigration plan, if you can call it that, is to aim for twice the average immigration rate of other developed nations, and this is their version of a cut. According to the latest available data from 2024-25, Australia has been adding 1.0 per cent to its population each year. That's over four times the rate of the UK, France, New Zealand or Germany. It's nine times the rate of the US. We can't even be compared to Canada, because they are running negative migration—the same negative net migration One Nation will deliver over three years.

While we get Australia's immigration system under control, Labor will sit across the chamber and screech about the doom that this will bring to the economy. What is truly dooming the economy is the Labor government. Whilst running negative migration, Canada has massively outperformed Australia on per capita GDP. Australia's has gone backwards since Canada started cutting immigration, while Canada's has jumped 1.3 per cent. Canadians are benefiting from massive cuts to migration. They are more productive per person.

This Labor government hates talking about the metrics that matter. They hate talking about 'per capita' because they know that their policies are smashing everyday Australians. They know that Australians are getting poorer under their watch and standards of living are sliding backwards. Even so, they want to add a million more people over four years—that's if they hit their target, for once, which they won't. While everyday Australians get poorer, while rents skyrocket and while inflation continues to bite, this Labor government pours more people in so they can say, 'The economy is growing.'

What good is avoiding a technical recession from contracting headline GDP if people can't afford their groceries, if they can't get a roof over their heads? This government has killed the economy. They've become addicted to mass immigration to mask their incompetence. They continue to run at over four times the rate of comparable countries because, if they stop now, the economic vandalism will be laid bare. Labor are in damage control and are incapable of admitting their mistakes. They won't change. They can't change. One Nation has a plan that puts the prosperity of Australians first.

Question agreed to.