Mr IAN MACFARLANE —My question is addressed to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. I refer to your answer yesterday concerning the strong action being taken by this government against unauthorised arrivals. Do the large numbers of people who overstay their visas in Australia also pose a major threat to the integrity of our borders?

Mr RUDDOCK (Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation) —I thank the honourable member for Groom for the question. It certainly is a matter of concern to the government when people are here unlawfully, and there is a variety of means by which people become unlawful. First, of course, if people come by boat or by air and are not authorised to enter Australia, there are good and appropriate reasons why that is a matter for concern. We need to be able to satisfy ourselves that we know who the people are, whether they pose a risk to the health of the Australian community, whether they are of character concern—in other words, whether they are criminals in another place—or whether they pose a risk to our security. They are appropriate questions to be able to ask.

In relation to people who come to Australia lawfully—in other words, they enter on a visa and we have had an opportunity to clearly identify them and to satisfy ourselves from information made available to us that they are not criminals and that they are not of security concern; we maintain alert arrangements to identify people of particular concern to us—they do not pose the same immediate problem on arrival. The fact is that, in relation to the people who come to Australia by air, we make quite determined efforts to intercept them before they even get on an aircraft. In the past 12 months, something in the order of 438 people were intercepted at overseas airports and prevented from boarding flights to Australia. We also locate people at our airports who arrive and are refused entry. That can be because they have fraudulent documentation or it can be because we have other doubts in relation to their bona fides. We have seen a very significant increase in unauthorised border entries at our airports, and in the last year we refused entry to 2,019 people. Something in the order of 70 per cent of those unauthorised air arrivals were removed within 72 hours of arriving in Australia.

However, we are putting considerable resources into dealing with the other problem. When we know who they are and they happen to overstay a visa I do not regard it as being of the same urgency as the other matters, but it is of concern. Last year we located something of the order of 13,000 people who had overstayed visas or breached visa conditions. That is a very substantial number. When you estimate that 50,000 people are here unlawfully at any time, a 20 per cent location rate is very significant indeed. So that members may know of our ongoing concern in relation to this matter, I have had a review of illegal workers here in Australia. The government will be considering recommendations from the report. It will be interesting to see the level of support for the wide ranging recommendations that will no doubt flow from that review.