Australians value a fair go for all. The Kooyong community is inclusive, generous and welcoming. My priorities are:
- Promotion of diversity and cohesion in our workplaces and our communities.
- Humane treatment and speedy processing of refugees.
- Protection of the rights of vulnerable minorities, including the LGBTIQA+ community.
- An ongoing process of reconciliation with Australia’s First Nations peoples.
Immigration and asylum seekers
Right now, we have a shortage of workers. To grow a better Australia— to build our homes and business, and support our engineering, technology, education, and care sectors—we need evidence-based policies providing clarity and transparency around temporary and permanent migration, as well as a long-term plan to educate and train our own skilled workforces.
Neither the Albanese Government nor the Coalition has presented a coherent, evidence-based vision for immigration to Australia. Instead, arbitrary policies announced on the run for political gain have damaged our economic growth, higher education system, international reputation, and social cohesion.
The major parties are engaging in a race to the bottom, blaming migrants for their policy and planning failures. Immigration did not cause a housing crisis three decades in the making—that was poor government.
We need long-term, evidence-based immigration policy. We have to balance the economic, social, and cultural benefits of immigration with the challenges posed by population growth, especially housing supply, transport, education, infrastructure needs, and environmental protection.
Having clearly-defined, realistic, sustainable, and transparent immigration policies doesn’t have to erode our humanity. I’ve consistently voted against the Albanese Government’s punitive laws criminalising asylum seekers and punishing those seeking refuge in this country— laws which contravene our human rights obligations and the Australian spirit of compassion.
Australia will spend over half a billion dollars in 2024-2025 to detain fewer than 100 people on Nauru. I’ll continue to work to end offshore detention, to grant work and study rights to people seeking asylum, and to treat them and their children generously and inclusively
Parliamentary speeches
Terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023