Chinese Australian Forum
Sydney, 8 April 2008
Acknowledgements
President of the Chinese Australian Forum – Mr Tony Pang
Vice-President - Ms Angeline Oyang
Panel members
Ladies and gentlemen
It’s a great pleasure to be here representing my colleague, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Evans.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate the Chinese Australian Forum on the important role it plays in encouraging debate on issues that impact not only the Chinese community, but broader Australian society.
The forum, with its focus on non-party politics, has raised awareness among the Chinese Australian community and encouraged greater discussion and participation in the shaping of the Australian nation.
This participation is very welcome – particularly because Chinese Australians have made such a major contribution to the economic, cultural and social development of Australia, since the first Chinese began arriving here in the 1800s.
The latest Census tells us that people born in China are the third largest single group of migrants in Australia, after those from the UK and New Zealand.
Your commitment to hard work, family values and your own cultural traditions has enriched Australia immensely.
As you are aware, I am the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services.
The Australian Government is committed to providing leadership and support in ensuring that Australia remains a cohesive, multicultural society.
Cultural diversity is a source of both social and economic wealth and adds vibrancy and dynamism to Australian life.
At the same time, the Government is committed to migration policies that meet the needs of the Australian economy while maintaining the support of the community.
Australia is a country of migrants. Some 45 per cent of us were born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas.
Therefore, the migrant experience is one that is familiar and important to most of us – directly or indirectly.
It will continue to be so, as the Government works on developing world-class migration and population policies that strengthen the Australian economy as well as address our obligations to others suffering from the impacts of war, poverty and climate change.
Since coming to Government, we have moved swiftly to make changes that we believe will bring Australia closer to those world-class migration policies.
We are asking lots of questions about ways to improve Australia’s migration and population policies.
It is important for us to keep asking these questions to get the best outcomes – the shape of the nation literally depends on it.
For instance, the Government has recently unveiled a package of migration measures to address Australia’s skills and labour shortages.
Skills and labour shortages are a major cause of inflationary pressures, so we have increased the skilled migration program by 6000 places in 2007-08.
The increase will be made up of permanent employer sponsored visas and General Skilled Migration visas.
The extra 6000 places will bring to 108 500 the total number of permanent visas granted under the Skill Stream of the migration program in 2007-08.
We are also providing practical help for the construction industry, which is desperately short of workers, by making changes to the Working Holiday visa program.
Young people on this visa, who undertake at least three months work in the construction industry in regional Australia, will be able to extend their 12 month working holiday visa by another year.
The Government has also announced an External Reference Group made up of industry experts, who will examine how selected temporary skilled migration measures can help ease labour shortages in the medium to long term.
The recent fining of a West Australian company for
$174 000 for exploiting migrant workers from the Philippines and Ireland is proof that we must examine some of these temporary measures very closely to ensure that workers are not open to abuse as a result of them.
The Reference Group will deliver its final report to the Minister this month (April).
At the same time, we have made some other significant changes, such as the ending of the Pacific Solution and the closure of the Offshore Processing Centre and finalised the Cornelia Rau case and the cases of Tony Tran and Robert Jovicic.
In the meantime, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has continued with its business of enriching Australia through the well-managed entry and settlement of people.
In the period between 3 December 2007 and 3 March 2008, the department granted more than 50 000 Migration Program visas and more than 1.23 million temporary visas.
The department also granted 2 189 visas under the humanitarian program, while there were nearly 6.7 million arrivals and departures through our borders.
At the same time just over 26 000 people acquired citizenship.
Conclusion
Ladies and gentlemen, the Government has already moved quickly to make important changes to Australia’s migration and population policies in general.
It is imperative for the nation’s future that we continue to focus on these issues because the impacts will reverberate for generations to come.
At the same time, we intend to uphold and advance our international obligations through practical and compassionate responses to the many complexities that surround some of the planet’s most vulnerable people.
Once again, I thank the Chinese Australian Forum for its great work in encouraging debate and discussion on migration and many other issues.
The more we discuss them, the better our chances for getting them right.
Thank you
See:
Index of Speeches
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au
/parlsec/media/speeches/2008/lf080408.htm
Last update: 13 August 2008 at 17:14 AEST