MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator STEWART (Victoria) (18:11): I rise to oppose Senator Hanson's motion. When Australians are under pressure, political leaders have a choice. We can offer practical solutions, or we can look for someone to blame.

This motion is another attempt by One Nation to punch down and blame migrants. One Nation has blamed migrants for the housing crisis as well as a drop in productivity. But what One Nation doesn't understand is the difference between correlation and causation.

These are not simple issues. There are multiple factors at play, and it requires serious and practical policy responses, not scapegoating. Labor, on the other hand, understand the importance of our migrant communities.

We know that a strong migration system brings in the skills that Australia genuinely needs—nurses caring for our sick, aged-care workers supporting older Australians, teachers educating our children, and tradies building the homes that our communities so desperately need. The overwhelming majority of people who come to Australia respect our laws and make a valuable contribution to our country.

Labor is proud of the strength that immigration has brought to our country. Two weeks ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with businesses in Shepparton, from laundries and agriculture businesses to the advanced manufacturing sector. Their message to me was crystal clear: if migrant workers were cut, especially in those regions, they would suffer.

One Nation's plan won't provide a well-managed, targeted migration program. Rather than lift living standards and productivity, One Nation's plan will mean we won't have the workers we need to build our homes, look after our elderly, care for our sick or provide many of the services that we need and rely on every single day. It will make our communities and regional communities pay the price, and for what?

An absolute political stunt that makes a mockery of the legitimate concerns Australians have about migration, housing, services and infrastructure. That is why this government, the Albanese Labor government, is taking a different approach, managing migration responsibly, sustainably and in line with Australia's national interest. That means welcoming those who contribute to our country and taking firm action against anyone who breaks our laws or tries to game our migration system, which is why we are stamping out exploitation, abuse and rorts in our migration system, from tightening student visas to shutting down dodgy providers.

When Labor came to government, those opposite had made a mess out of the migration system. Net overseas migration was surging in the aftermath of the pandemic. Since then, Labor has worked hard to clean up the mess left by those opposite.

We have brought it down by 45 per cent from its postpandemic peak. Net overseas migration is now 301,000, down more than 45 per cent from the post-COVID peak, and temporary visa migration and international student migration are continuing to fall. That is what responsible government looks like—bringing migration back to sustainable levels while making sure our hospitals, aged-care services, schools, construction sites and regional businesses, like those that I met in Shepparton, can still find the workers that they need.

Australians deserve an honest debate about population, housing and infrastructure. They deserve governments that plan properly, invest in services and act when the system is being misused. What they do not deserve is a motion that reduces every challenge to one cause and treats people who have chosen to call Australia home as a problem.

Migrants are our neighbours, our colleagues, our carers and our small-business owners. In regional communities, they also keep farms, factories, hospitality venues and other local businesses operating when employers cannot find enough workers locally. They are part of the communities that we represent, and they should not be used as a convenient target when the policy questions before us demand serious answers.

We will keep doing the hard work of managing migration in the national interest. We will not support scapegoating dressed up as policy, and we will not support this motion.