I also rise to take note of Minister Cash's explanation of unanswered questions on notice, or, should I say, I take note of a non explanation regarding unanswered questions on notice. I am relatively new to this place, but it doesn't really seem like an unreasonable request to me that these questions are answered within 30 days. These are pretty basic questions and, as Senator Keneally said, they're questions of basic mathematics. So why aren't the government answering our questions? What is it that they're trying to hide? Not answering questions put to the government through correct channels in this place says more about their answers than their leaked talking points do. Maybe the government are trying to hide the fact that this financial year an average of 65 people per day made a claim for asylum under the Liberals, or maybe they're trying to hide the fact that a staggering 4,000 airplane people made a claim for protection between 1 July 2019 and 31 August 2019. That's 4,000 people in just 62 days under this government.
The government's own leaked talking points on this issue state, 'The government is focusing resources both on and offshore to prevent unmeritorious protection claims,' but they say they have stopped the boats. So what offshore protection are they focusing on? Are they focusing on it at all? From 1 July 2014 to 31 August 2019, 95,000 protection visa applications were lodged by persons who entered Australia lawfully by air. Some of our regional towns don't have that population. It's a population that could almost fill the MCG or, more relevantly to people in my state, they could fill two Adelaide Ovals, and yet the government's leaked talking points state that the number of people who apply for protection is declining. In 2018-19, the number of onshore protection claims fell by 12 per cent a result of the government's focus on stopping unmeritorious claims. Ninety five thousand are a result of the government's focus. I think it's time for the government to visit the optometrist, because their focus is completely out of whack. But, more than that, the government claim that, between 2018 and 2019, the number of onshore protection claims fell by 12 per cent, but, when you look back at the breakdown of figures per year since 2014, what you can actually see is that under this government the figures rose substantially every year and there was merely a very small decrease between 2018-19. The breakdown shows that, between 2014 and 2015, there were over 8,000 persons. The next year the number jumped to over 12,000, the year after it was 18,000 and in 2017-18 the number of people who made a claim for protection soared to a staggering 27,000.
It must be said that the majority of the people applying for asylum are not genuine refugees. We are not talking about vulnerable stateless people who need our protection; we are talking about people who are exploiting a loophole in this government's so-called tough border protection to seek asylum in Australia illegally. The government can try and blur the figures all they like. They can skew the figures to their benefit as much as they like, but they can't hide from the fact that under this government the exploitation of Australia's visa and migration system is absolutely out of control, and the government know this.
The now Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood MP, flagged the exploitation of Australia's visa and migration system earlier this year. In the last parliament, Mr Wood was the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. The committee handed down its report on the inquiry into the efficacy of current regulation of Australian migration and education agents. Wood made the following comments, as chair, in the forward:
Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole to bring out illegal workers who are often vulnerable and open to exploitation. This represents an orchestrated scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised.
So, the government can pretend they don't know where their focus is and they can pretend the figures don't exist or, at least, the figures they don't like, but the government cannot hide from the fact that they knew about this issue and they knew the extent of this issue. They have lost control of our borders.
Of the protection visa applications decided by the department between 1 July 2014 and 19 August 2019, over 60,000 people, or 84 per cent to be exact, were refused. The government like to stand up in this place and dismiss genuine refugees who come to this country to seek protection for their families and hope for a better life, but they're more than happy to allow tens of thousands of people who are not genuine refugees to exploit our immigration system via the air. Worst of all, the government know all of this and are not telling us because they know the Australian people would not accept a government that has lost control of its borders and put our national security at risk. Both the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Peter Dutton, and the immigration minister, David Coleman, have confirmed this. Peter Dutton has said that, between 2014-15 and 2017-18, 64,362 people arrived by air and subsequently applied for protection. Over the same period, 7,600 were granted a protection visa, which is a refusal rate of 90 per cent. And David Coleman has said:
"… people who arrive lawfully by plane, we obviously know who they are. They have a lawful visa. And in terms of the people who actually apply for protection when they get here, more than 90 per cent are rejected and the number of people who are applying … so far this year is down by about 20 per cent. So it's coming down the number of people are applying onshore for protection. So, for the Labor Party to raise issues related to protection visas is ridiculous. Their legacy in unlawful boat arrivals, where our Border Force officers were required to go out onto the high seas to place themselves at risk and of course, the families themselves placing themselves at risk, that was an appalling situation. It was a humanitarian catastrophe. And there is absolutely no comparison to other forms of applications for protection".
That's what David Coleman said.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Smith, may I remind you to refer to those in the other place by their correct title.
Senator MARIELLE SMITH: Yes, apologies. There is a greater issue at play here with aeroplane people claiming asylum, and it is an issue of exploitation. Once these individuals make a claim for protection and their original visa expires, they are placed on a bridging visa, often with work rights. There are currently over 200,000 people on bridging visas in Australia. The number of people on bridging visas in Australia reached the record high of 230,000 in March this year under this Liberal government. Bridging visas have blown out quarter on quarter, year on year since Peter Dutton became the responsible minister in 2014. That is six straight years of significant increases. The number of people on bridging visas in Australia increased by 29,000. Since the Liberals formed government in September 2013 the number of people on bridging visas in Australia has increased by 93,000. In fact, this increase alone is more than double the number of boat arrivals under the previous Labor government. So the government, who are constantly telling Australia that they are strong on our borders and strong on the protection of our national security, are, in fact, not telling us the full picture.
The government attempts to claim the majority of people on bridging visas are part of the legacy case load of boat arrivals. The home affairs minister has been quoted as saying:
"… people who arrived under the Labor Party by boat are, a large number of the times, we don't know who they are because of the issues in terms of identity. They don't have travel documents and there are still many thousands of those people who are on bridging visas in the community as a direct consequence of the 50,000 people who arrived under Labor. We've got that number down over the years but it's been a long process and continues to be and is a direct consequence of Labor's appalling legacy".
However, according to the July 2019 illegal maritime arrivals legacy case load report, there are only 8,000 people with applications on hand or at review.
Visa processing times are both the reason for and a symptom of the current problem. In addition to all of this, the government has allowed these people to become vulnerable and face widespread exploitation in Australia. It's contributing to a growing labour crisis in the agricultural and horticulture sector, as Senator Keneally has said, and is significantly impacting my home state of South Australia. Virginia in South Australia is a regional town close to Adelaide, with most growers requiring labour all year round to work on a variety of vegetable crops, such as carrots, potatoes and tomatoes, although there are, of course, some inflated labour needs at harvest time.
A study conducted by Howe et al at the University of Adelaide titled Towards a durable future: tackling labour challenges in the Australian horticulture industry showed some staggering evidence of the government's policy failure in this area:
Despite being an eligible postcode for the WHM visa extension, growers we interviewed relied heavily on a local population of recently arrived permanent migrants from developing countries.
The absence of an intermediary role by accommodation providers can be attributed to the permanent residency status of the workforce with no need for temporary accommodation.
The case study in Virginia also revealed much less reliance on intermediaries than in the other four case studies. In this location, the ABC Four Corners television investigation exposing non-compliant labour hire use in Virginia in 2015 has had a unique impact on growers' decision making regarding labour hire use.
There was general consensus among large and medium-sized growers in Virginia that using labour hire posed significant risks to their businesses. As one grower reported, "After that [the Four Corners program] we moved to direct employment and hired a human resources manager".
There was a high level of distrust of labour hire among growers in Virginia. The response of some growers was to bring all hiring decisions in-house. One grower reported, "we got stung really badly by a dodgy labour hire company that was ripping off the workers and paying them the permanent rate but treating them like a casual; so when we audited pay slips we thought they were getting paid right".
Another grower told us, "I think labour hire is too dangerous and often attract the wrong kind of people. We don't want to work with contractors much because it's our responsibility to check everybody. Labour hire should be audited or closed up as an industry, otherwise it's too risky".
The exploitation of workers, regardless of their status in our country, under this government's watch is utterly and absolutely unacceptable. It is a perfect example of the growing list of policy failures from this Liberal government. If this government can't even be trusted to hold onto its own speaking notes, how can it be trusted to manage illegal plane arrivals entering Australia? It is absolutely clear that, on the issues of security and border protection, this chaotic and shambolic government cannot be trusted, and it seems pretty clear to me that this is precisely the reason why they have failed to answer Labor's questions.
