Mr SPEAKER —I call the honourable member for Deakin.

Mr BARRESI —Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Crean —Mr Speaker, on a point of order—

Mr SPEAKER —You do not have the call. The honourable member for Deakin has the call. The honourable member for Hotham will resume his seat.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —He cannot interrupt a member in the middle of asking a question. You can have your point of order after that. You will resume your seat. The honourable member for Deakin will ask his question and then I will take the point of order.

Mr BARRESI —My question is addressed to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Is the minister aware of the case of an Indian student who recently died on the Gold Coast from TB? Can the minister inform the House of the health testing procedures in place to protect the Australian community from such infectious diseases?

Mr SPEAKER —I call the honourable member for Hotham on a point of order.

Mr Crean —Thank you, Mr Speaker. The point of order is that I immediately jumped to my feet when the Prime Minister accused us—

Mr SPEAKER —After somebody had the call. You will not question the Speaker's ruling.

Opposition members —Oh!

Mr Crean —I am not questioning your ruling because I am up on my feet. But I am just trying to make the point—

Mr SPEAKER —You currently have the call, but you will not unless you make your point of order.

Mr Crean —I am trying to make the point that I jumped up at the first point.

Mr SPEAKER —What is your point of order?

Mr Crean —The Prime Minister accused me of deliberately misleading. I understand you to have previously said—

Mr SPEAKER —I did not hear him say that.

Mr Crean —He did say that. If he did say it, I ask you to have him either withdraw it or move a substantive motion. Can I just say, why is it the Prime Minister alleges it when he refuses—

Mr SPEAKER —The honourable member will resume his seat. Did the Prime Minister accuse the member of deliberately misleading?

Mr Howard —Since he is a bit sensitive I will say `misled'.

Mr Crean —Why won't you allow us to table the documentation?

Mr SPEAKER —The honourable member will resume his seat. You do not have the call.

Mr RUDDOCK (Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for Deakin for his question. I appreciate very much the interest that the member for Deakin displays in immigration questions and the constructive approach he takes on these matters. I am aware of the tragic case involving the student who died on the Gold Coast over this last week.

The first point I would like to make in relation to the immigration program itself is that all migrants and long-term entrants to Australia are required to meet stringent health criteria that are designed to protect the Australian community and designed to protect us particularly from active tuberculosis where there is the possibility of transmission to other people.

Those measures, which have been in place over a long period of time, are a very important part of the immigration program. In this particular case, the student was assessed, X-rays were taken and those X-rays divulged that he was suffering active TB. Unfortunately, he had been visaed incorrectly before that particular information had been received by the overseas post. That visaing should not have occurred. It had a tragic outcome for the student because he would have obviously been able to be treated if it had become known at an appropriate time. Certainly, that would have been the case because this was some seven months before he died.

It was a tragic loss of his life, and it disclosed a number of irregularities which I will draw to your attention. First, a locally engaged staffer had the authority to deal with student visas. That locally engaged staffer incorrectly issued a visa without that information being taken into account. That locally engaged staffer has now been dismissed, because, quite clearly, he was not—

Mr Kerr —You have been replacing Australians with locally engaged staff.

Mr RUDDOCK —I might say to the honourable member for Denison that it is a very tortuous route you go down if you want to go down that path and look at the nature of the delegations that were put in place under you and your colleagues—

Mr SPEAKER —I suggest that the minister reply through the chair.

Mr RUDDOCK —Which I have been systematically reviewing and continuing to review to put right what has occurred. But I do not think you want to go down that path.

There are further matters that are the subject of investigation, because this matter is of very serious concern. As a result of what we have discovered in relation to this matter, we have now embarked upon systematically checking, urgently, all of the visas that have been issued to students over the last 12 months, starting particularly in New Delhi, but also following those posts where TB is known to be a factor. We will then move to check all students who have been visaed because we want to be assured that there are no other students who have entered Australia in these circumstances.

The further step that I have ordered to be taken is that from today all health deferrals issued by the Health Assessment Service in Australia will be entered on my department's movement alert list. That should ensure that even if a person receives a visa in future inappropriately, they will not be able to be entered into Australia because they will be on the movement alert list. This is a very important step. I want to assure the House that I regard health testing as absolutely crucial to being able to maintain an efficacious system.

One ought not to be alarmist in relation to these matters because there is little evidence that there is significant transmission of active TB to the Australian born population from visitors or migrants overseas. In fact, it is more likely that contact is liable if somebody is travelling outside of Australia and meeting with people in other places where they are likely to have TB.

The further information I would like to provide to the House is that the data from the national micro-bacterial surveillance scheme shows that Australia has experienced no increase in the incidence of tuberculosis over the last 20 years. In fact, over the last 10 years the incidence of tuberculosis has re mained at between five and six cases per 100,000. This is the lowest rate in the world, equalled only by Norway.