QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator FARRELL (South Australia—Minister for Trade and Tourism, Special Minister of State and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:30): I thank Senator Duniam for his question. The recent history that you're referring to regarding migration occurred for this reason. We had the period of COVID, where migration into this country virtually ceased.

When we came to government, we discovered that there were about a million unprocessed visa applications to come to this country. The government set about processing and catching up on those numbers. You had a situation for a long period of time when the migration figure was very low.

Those people were granted their visa applications and the numbers went up. But, since that time, the government has been working to try and get the numbers in balance. And so, over that period of time that you're talking about, numbers have decreased by about 45 per cent.

As a person who has always supported migration in this country, I've been disappointed in the recent debate about migration. I think migrants have done a wonderful job for this country, and, overwhelmingly, migrants who come to this country are a net benefit to Australia. What I think has happened in recent times is that the issue of migration has been politicised and people have blamed migrants for issues for which migrants— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Duniam, first supplementary?