QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Leader of the House) (14:02): I'm asked about the announcement today by the Leader of the Opposition. The final part of the question was about why we have made the announcements the way we have, and in particular, why the numbers that we're talking about are the numbers that are in the budget.

In referring to the term 'cuts', the member opposite is wanting to say that we should go deeper than the numbers projected in the budget. Let me say this to the Leader of the Opposition, as I said to the National Press Club today: if you make cuts too deep and too hard in the immigration system, you trash the Australian economy. That's what happens.

I say to the member opposite—has he listened to his own backbenchers as they've been calling for working holiday-makers? Has he listened to the Farmers' Federation and others as they've been saying they don't have enough workers, or does he fall for this argument that maybe it's only the regions and not the cities? Does he understand in any way the fact that, if you're trying to build houses and housing is something that we need—we also have skill shortages.

In Sydney and Melbourne, two-thirds of the plasterers essential for new housing are born overseas. Does he understand that the people who have jobs at our universities funded by international education are Australian citizens with real jobs? Does he understand that the people who work there have real jobs?

Does he understand that the small businesses that exist off the back of international education are also people with real jobs? Australia does need to temper the rate of migration to give housing a chance to catch up. We do need to do that.

But what no responsible party of government should ever do is say that they will leave Australian businesses without the skills they need to make their businesses run, that they will leave Australian farmers without the skills that they need to be able to deal with the next harvest—that those opposite would be able to have a situation for industries like law enforcement, like resources, like our teachers, like construction.

We are proudly a nation that has been built on immigration—absolutely proudly. What we need to make sure of is that the system is managed as effectively as possible. We need to make sure that it is guided to deliver for the needs of the Australian people.

What we don't need is random dog-whistling of someone wanting to claim that they're against all the numbers and want all the numbers to be lower except for every visa that might affect their electorate. Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: There is far too much interjection. The Leader of the Opposition.

The member for Barton and the member for Barker are close to not being here for the remainder of question time.