QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (14:43): Thank you, Senator Bell, for the question. It is a matter of record that the government is considering a range of changes to our migration system to build on the work that we've done over the last four years to dramatically reduce the migration numbers we inherited from the coalition. Opposition senators interjecting— Senator WATT: Well, it's a fact.

Senator Canavan: What a joke! They peaked under you! Senator WATT: Do we want to go back to the review that was done of the migration system under that bloke whose name you don't ever mention, Peter Dutton, which found that the migration system presided over by the former coalition government was completely rorted, completely broken and needed to be fixed?

It's by fixing that migration system that this government has brought down net overseas migration by 45 per cent over the last four years, compared to the spike that we saw shortly after coming to government. In addition, it is a matter of record that we are considering further changes to our migration system. We won't be taking instructions from One Nation when it comes to our migration policy.

We won't be adopting a migration policy that is destined to send the Australian economy into recession. We won't be taking up One Nation's suggestions to have a migration policy that means that hospitals and aged-care facilities in our suburbs and regions will not be staffed. We won't be taking up suggestions for migration that drive the economy into recession, meaning that people will be out of work, because, when economies go into recession, that tends to lead to unemployment.

That's what One Nation wants to see happen to Australian workers right across the country. It's not just the government saying this; we've seen comments from the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the National Farmers' Federation, who said that One Nation's policy would have a terrible impact for farmers. We won't be taking those suggestions.

We'll be coming up with good ideas, not bad ones. (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Bell, first supplementary?