Mr CAUSLEY (2:41 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Can the minister inform the House of the measures implemented by the coalition government to encourage more migrants to settle in regional Australia? What support has been given to these measures by state governments?

Mr RUDDOCK (Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Reconciliation) —I thank the honourable member for Page for his question. It reflects his significant interest in his own electorate as a regional centre in Australia and in some of the initiatives that the government has put in place to assist people in settling outside of our major cities in New South Wales and Victoria. Some of the measures that the government has put in place include the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme, which enables regional certifying bodies to assist employers to sponsor skilled migrants—the number of certifying bodies has increased significantly from seven in May 1996 to 29 now—the state and territory nominated independent visa class, which enables state and territory governments to nominate individual migrants on the basis of state specific labour market shortages; the establishment of a database of potential skilled migrants, which is available to state and territory governments and some regional certifying bodies to select migrants; and a skilled regional sponsorship visa which allows people living in designated areas to sponsor relatives who can come without the need for the applicant to meet the points test applicable to the Australian skilled category.

The fact is that these measures have been significant. They have led to a situation where, over the last three years, the number of visas granted under the various mechanisms has increased from 1,060 in our first year in office—that is, 1996-97—to 2,775 last year. If honourable members opposite were seriously interested in regional migration rather than rhetoric, you would hear them talking about the substantial measures that they had in mind that might be able to be considered. You would hear them talking about their record when they were in office to demonstrate that they had a commitment to this process of getting a better dispersal of the migration program. You would hear them saying, in relation to their state colleagues when specific measures are put in place, that they have taken them up and used them. I asked for some advice today just to remind me of what the Labor Party did when they were in office. They provided a mere five points bonus under the concessional family category, which had very little impact. The RSMS scheme was introduced by the former minister as a pilot. He made it very clear that he had put it in the too-hard basket and had no perception that it was likely to work. The only state sponsorship arrangements were in the business skills area, where state sponsorship was used only to bring people to the larger cities and capital cities of the larger states.

The RSMS scheme was introduced by the former minister as a pilot. He made it very clear that he had put it in the too hard basket and had no perception that it was likely to work. The only state sponsorship arrangements were in the business skills area, where state sponsorship was only used to bring people to the larger cities and capital cities of the larger states.

So the Labor Party in office have demonstrated that they had absolutely no commitment to regional migration, that they had no ideas. In relation to the state sponsorship the only state of Australia that has put the time and effort into developing this initiative so that it works effectively has been South Australia. When you go to those states that mouth some concerns about these matters, like Tasmania, where they have a Labor government in place, there is absolutely no interest at all in taking up these initiatives, even though they have members in this place coming in here and saying: `We are concerned about regional migration.' You ought to be talking to your colleagues. You ought to be sitting down and thinking about some real initiatives that would demonstrate some concern about these issues and producing some substantial ideas.