Page 1803 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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this a day after the budget, which the government says is so great for our territory. The best thing that Mr Hinder can do is to come into this place and try to create difficulty in the community for people settling in. It is a disgrace. It is a debate that should not be happening.
Mr Wall: Shame!
MRS JONES: It is shameful and embarrassing. With the announcement of the budget yesterday, I am surprised there was not anything else, nothing else, about dealing with his own electorate’s cost of living, about the townhouse expense increases this government is putting on to ratepayers. We have increases in the cost of parking around this city for lower income workers who are trying to make a go of their lives. This government just keeps increasing parking costs, for example, on the apprentices in Phillip who will have to pay 10 per cent of their wages for parking if this parking change goes through. We will discuss this later in the day.
But rather than focusing seriously on the issues that everyday Canberrans are actually struggling with, Mr Hinder has come in here with this ideological argument. By doing the bidding of the national Labor Party, he somehow thinks he is bringing something very clever into this chamber, but he should check his own party’s position.
The ALP’s current position is stated on its federal website under the heading “Advancing multicultural Australia”. It is stated—these are not my words; they are your party’s words—in respect of English proficiency:
One third of humanitarian entrants speak little or no English, which undermines labour productivity and stymies long-term economic and social opportunities.
They are not my words. They are the Labor Party’s words. That is right. It is the Labor Party that has said that it stymies long-term economic and social opportunities for those individuals. That is why we back them up with English-language courses. The website of the Labor Party goes on to say:
This is an issue which is only going to worsen over time.
It also states:
The unemployment rate for skilled primary visa holders was 3 per cent, well below 5.6 per cent, the Australian average at the time of the Census.
These are not my words; they are the Labor Party’s words. The website goes on to say:
Family migrants and humanitarian migrants show higher rates of unemployment, 9 per cent and 16 per cent respectively, than the labour market average.
Not my words; they are the Labor Party’s words. At the time Mr Dutton was commenting, he was being asked about the Greens policy. The Greens policy is to bring 50,000 new arrival refugees to this country every year; 50,000. So maybe Mr Hinder has a view about how we should fund the language courses and the settlement services for 50,000 arrivals.
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