STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (13:50): Every year 230,000 people leave Australia, mostly PALM agricultural workers, backpackers and students at the end of their visa, and Australians retiring, working or staying with family overseas. Every year new people arrive to take their place, including Australians coming home after moving overseas. None of these are migrants.

This is where the confusion is. Net overseas migration from the Bureau of Statistics includes anyone coming here for 12 months out of 16, even if their visa does not allow them to stay permanently. For clarity, One Nation love backpackers and PALM workers.

The bush couldn't live without them. We're happy to replace one leaving with one arriving as needed. We're happy to have a limited number of foreign students coming here, as long as they're genuine students competent in English and not bringing their family with them, because that makes them a migrant.

Student numbers will reduce to make room for Australian children thriving from One Nation's 'teach don't preach' education policy. That brings us back to our 130,000 figure for actual migration. It's a cap.

In the first few years we will deport anyone who's broken their visa conditions and any family tied to that visa—hundreds of thousands of people who will not be replaced—freeing homes and hospital beds, making room in schools, healthcare and NDIS, and reducing crime because we will deport the illegals, the criminals. We will allow new skilled migrants with verified qualifications and work history, people we know, to grow our economy and get all Australians out of the mess in which successive Liberal and Labor uniparty governments have dumped us with.

Growth through infrastructure, increasing productivity and wealth for everyone are how we absorb genuine arrivals who deserve to stay in limited numbers. That's part of One Nation's migration policy.