Mr HARDGRAVE (8:54 PM) —The member for Calwell was a strong advocate even back in the days when he first entered parliament some 20 years ago, in the previous Parliament House. Legend has it around this place that my esteemed predecessor, Sir James Killen, was noted to have answered an interjection from the member for Calwell with, `Pipe down, Pythagoras.' I am sure he will take that in the good spirit in which I offer it, because tonight we have heard Theophanous's theorem, and I suspect all honourable members who have witnessed it would realise that he nearly popped his hypotenuse on a few occasions. It is a bit sad that those who may read these debates for whatever reason cannot pick up the passion with which the member for Calwell has made his contribution tonight.

It is really important that all Australians who follow matters relating to migration in this country understand that at the heart of the way the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Philip Ruddock, a man of great repute, has administered his department is dignity and integrity—integrity of the system, integrity of those in the system and dignity for those in the system. As a member on this side who represents many people from a wide cross-section of migrant communities—some affluent, like the Taiwanese community who are generally quite well off, some extremely poor, like those who have come from the Horn of Africa, Somalia, the Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia—I understand very well how important it is for those people to know that they are highly regarded by all Australians from all walks of life, that they are welcome, that their role in this country is assured and that there is no question about their integrity or the checks and balances which were applied to them before they came to this country.

I do not have the experience in migration matters of the member for Calwell, both in close detail and in policy areas, but I can say that in the four years that I have been proud to represent the electorate of Moreton I have got more than a fair handle on the aspirations of people in my electorate—those who are more recently arrived migrants as well as those who are perhaps longer-term migrants, those who are of well-established families that have been here for more than a hundred years and others. Indeed, I can say without any hesitation that people in my electorate expect the government of the day to have in place a policy framework that tests all of those who put a submission to us to come to this country. What is really important about the measures before us again tonight is that they are a continuation of this constant theme of integrity in the system, of making sure that those who do come here can hold their heads high with a great deal of pride and say, `I've made it through all the hoops, over all the high jump bars through all the tests of the system.'

It is not just a simple matter of testing their bona fides as far as their criminal, health and character records are concerned—they are the absolute basics. People in this country expect to be sure that people arriving here from another nation, either as a temporary visitor or as a permanent resident bringing whatever skills and assets they have to this nation, are of high character, that they are of competent and safe health and that they bring no problems with them. People in this nation expect those who migrate here not to bring the troubles from their old countries to their new country. They do not want to see a continuation of what may have been a tribal fight in their old country carried on here. We have just seen an instance of this in the southern suburbs of Brisbane in recent times: a tragedy just outside my electorate in the electorate of Griffith involving what is essentially an African community gang versus another African community gang. The African community in my electorate, to their great credit, have met to discuss how they, as a community, can make those who do not understand realise that clashes with machetes and that sort of violence have no place in this country. They realise, even though they have only been in this country a short space of time, the importance of proving their credentials as good citizens, first and foremost as good Australians, and how this affords them the opportunity to then carry on their traditions and their culture and to display this to the broader community. This is an exciting country in which to be a citizen—

Mr Slipper —And a tolerant country.

Mr HARDGRAVE —It is more than just a tolerant country. This is a country whose citizenry right across the board is vitally interested in finding out about other cultures. That is why multiculturalism is so well accepted, that this nation says to people who have come from cultures other than the predominant Anglo-Celtic culture that I guess has been the mainstay of this nation, `You can come here in peace, you can come here with enterprise, with aspirations, with care and concern for your families, with skills to help continue to build this nation, and you can practise your own culture here. First and foremost you must be good Australians'—that is the challenge to all those who come here—`but practise your culture, educate the broader community, teach them something about you and learn something about them.'

Mr Slipper —With hard work you will succeed.

Mr HARDGRAVE —With hard work you can succeed. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration, at the table, is quite correct. One of the great maxims, especially amongst those who have come from the refugee community in my electorate, is a determination to work, a determination to find a job and a determination to succeed. I am going to talk about some of those aspirations and some of the problems associated with that in my contribution this evening.

In fact, it is a very important thing to realise that those who come to this country appreciate being here. Those who are genuine refugees, who have passed the very heavy set of criteria that we set—and quite rightly so—value the fact that they have come through the system and want to make a contribution. There are those in my community whom I see daily who have left behind horrors that I would not want to inflict upon even, if I had such a person in my world, my worst of enemies. I would not want to inflict the horrors that some of those people from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, whom I am proud to represent in this place, have encountered during their lives. I would not want to wake up with the smell of burning bodies with the knowledge that your brother, your sister, your mother or your father was killed the night before because of some tribal clash. I would not want to inflict that upon another soul. Those sorts of traumatised people exist in this country, but they are, despite all that, making their way. One of the reasons that they are able to make their way with a great sense of dignity and a great sense of purpose is knowing that there is in place a system of migration which ensures that once they are here they can hold their heads high and be treated extremely well.

This migration bill contains a variety of measures which are all going to ensure that those who arrive as a result of these changes are going to be welcomed by Australians as bona fide migrants to this country. This bill contains measures which are going to assist in the recognition of the skill base that we desperately need to continue to reinvent in this nation. The other week I was privileged to visit the Moreton Institute of TAFE, named after the same district that my electorate was named after. Although it is in the electorate of Griffith, they adopt me as a namesake on occasions. This occasion was the plastic and rubber industry joint venture with the Technical and Further Education Institute at Moreton, at Mount Gravatt.

Mr Kerr —Plastic and rubber: that sounds like a Tory sort of interest.

Mr HARDGRAVE —That is a disgraceful interjection from the member for Denison, given some of the stories. The PARTEC project is from the plastic and rubber industry that operates in south-east Queensland and is exporting a number of very viable commodities to the world. There is a desperate skill shortage in that particular area, in particular in the area of skilled toolmakers. It is extraordinary to think that in this nation, where we have had a manufacturing base in place for a long time, we are short on people capable of making the sorts of tools to make the sorts of moulds that are necessary for whatever it is that particular industry may happen to make. I was stunned, and I place it on the record here. The Minister for Employment Services, now at the table, looks after things like the Job Network. Minister Abbott would be shocked like I was to know that they are saying that we need to import skilled workers in the area of toolmaking from England and Germany, where there is a surplus. That is a matter which I guess is contained within this bill. If Minister Kemp were at the table, I guess I would be saying that perhaps we as a government need to invest more in that particular area, because I am sure most Australians would prefer to think that home-grown products were more available than those who migrate here.

Nevertheless, this bill does allow those who have something to offer to Australia, who can meet the criteria of what is in it for Australia, and bring skills to Australia, to come here. Schedule 7 of this bill will extend from 12 months to two years the period in which a points tested visa applicant who has not met the prevailing pass mark but did meet a lower pool mark may have their visa application held in reserve. They may miss out on the first brush but they are kept up our sleeve, because of their skills, for another occasion. Those people whose applications are held in reserve in the independent category may in fact elect to provide further details of their educational qualifications and work experience for inclusion in a database for skills matching so that people at PARTEC at Moreton Institute of TAFE will be able to contact the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and say, `These are the sorts of people we need; who have you got?' They are the sorts of practical measures that are contained in this bill before us.

It also gives me an opportunity to comment that the lethargic nature of the Queensland government in recognition of the skills that a lot of people have brought to this country is robbing people in my electorate of the chance to take a rightful place in the work force. I spoke before about people who have come as refugees from the Horn of Africa. There are amongst them people who have developed skills or who have received qualifications that are not readily recognised here in this country. That is handled by state and territory governments, and it is important that state and territory governments proceed quickly to understand who we have in our communities, what assets we have achieved among our citizenry and what individuals are lying dormant waiting to offer something in this country and prove their worth to their fellow citizens. State and territory governments should do something about upgrading their understanding so that these people with unrecognised skills can take their place in society and with it achieve even greater dignity than they have already gained simply by passing the tests set by the department of immigration before they actually even come here to this country.

On that note, I want to acknowledge the assistance of the Minister for Employment Services, who responded very quickly, on a visit to my electorate a few months ago, to some very real observations made by the African community about the frustrations that they had in trying to break through the Job Network—although it is a very effective network—because of their English language skills. The minister received a submission from them on the basis of a touch screen, a submission which I know he felt very much in favour of. He encouraged departmental officials to look at ways of trying to assist them and the department came through with the goods. So the African community in my electorate are very well served by the minister, Tony Abbott, and they think very highly of his ability to respond quickly to their needs and concerns. I would like to place on record my thanks to the minister, seeing that he is in the chamber right now.

Hand in hand with that was the migrant employment program that was established by the Queensland government. It is a sad thing to report that the Queensland government took that migrant employment program and ran it for six or nine months and that now it has gone down a big hole. I certainly would hope that the Queensland government would find the money necessary to try to keep that project going because, particularly amongst vulnerable people, if the program is taken away, there will be a great sense of loss and frustration felt by these people. That really is the last signal that they need to feel from any level of government.

Also, in relation particularly to these refugee members in my electorate and their prospects to go on and become good and productive Australians, they are equally very concerned about what is happening in Australia and the concern that Australians broadly have about this people smuggling racket. The measures that this government has undertaken to try to combat people-smuggling—a heinous crime against individuals, a dreadful thing, a crime against humanity—are being received with wholehearted support amongst those who have been legitimate refugees, who have lived in camps in Kenya, such as the Kakuma camp outside Nairobi and who have gone through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees chain of events which eventually brought them through the system and to our shores. There is a great distaste for those who are perpetrating this crime of bringing people into this country as victims of people smuggling more than just as refugees. There is a great distaste for them. There is, however, an understanding of the frustration, the slowness and the sluggishness of the system that perhaps encourages those who try to queue jump, but there is a great determination among those who have come here as refugees through the system to live as law abiding Australians to play their part in our community, to uphold our laws and to encourage the government to continue this whole of government approach to combating people smuggling.

On each occasion that Minister Ruddock has come into my electorate to talk to people from the various ethnic communities, both as individual communities and as one, he has been well regarded and well received, because the integrity that he has imposed on this system and under which we operate our migration system in this country is well understood and well appreciated by those who come through it. I understand the pent-up frustrations of the member for Calwell in his contribution here tonight, because I too get a lot of people who come through the door of my office who want instant answers to their reasonable set of circumstances. One of the best ideas has been put forward to me by a migration agent who operates out of my electorate and does a lot of migration work for students and others who come out of the People's Republic of China. In fact, the day after you, Madam Deputy Speaker Crosio, and I visited the Australian embassy in Beijing in April last year this same chap was there. I raised this chap's idea with migration officials at the Australian embassy and he told me a few weeks later, `I know you've passed my idea on to all those involved.' This particular idea is that migration agents themselves should lodge a bond and say, `I'm going to vouch for the integrity of the person I am acting for.' I think the idea has some merit on the basis of the bona fides of the migration agents being up to speed. Of course it is not going to suit everybody, but it may clean out a little bit in the waiting list. It is an idea that I think is worth looking at. It is an idea of self-help and self-start which is born out of a genuine frustration with the fact that the process—which we all endorse in this place—that ensures integrity in the system and that ensures dignity for those who come through the system does in fact take time. Those sorts of measures and the results that we achieve are very important.

Not too long ago in this place there was someone who sat here for a short time who attempted to divide this nation through race and bigotry, misconceptions and falsehoods about those who aspire to come to this nation to live and about those who aspire to come to this nation to visit. We do not want to see a system which evolves, develops, enhances, creates or even opens up the opportunity for that sort of debate to ever begin again in this country. Very simply, what we want is a system in place—and I believe that the measures contained in this bill will enhance the system that we currently have in place—that has the support of all Australians, whether they were born here or whether they have come here, and whether their family has been here 50 years, 150 years or 50,000 years. Everyone has to feel as though indeed they are a part of the equation in an equal and correct way. I suspect those who come to this country and choose to take an oath or affirmation of citizenship, as a declaration of support, care, and concern and attachment to this country, have something over those of us who have not had to take an oath or an affirmation like that.

I welcome the minister's initiative to try to give Australian born citizens a chance to get themselves up onto that same platform to say that they care about Australia. What is important is that we do not divide, like those opposite did for 13 years. What is important is that we bring together all people from all communities and from all backgrounds to continue to build a great nation. (Time expired)