Michael Sukkar MP

Federal Member for Deakin
Shadow Minister for Social Services
Shadow Minister for the NDIS
Shadow Minister for Housing
Shadow Minister for Homelessness
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Constituency Statements: Temporary Sponsored Parent Visas



In contrast to many other countries, one of the great success stories in Australia over many decades has been the ease with which we have been able to integrate new migrants and their families into the life of our nation. The Deakin electorate, for example, is home to many large migrant communities, including those from Chinese, Italian, Greek and Indian backgrounds, just to name a few. Part of the success story has been that we run a robust and orderly migration program, which really is the envy of the world. One of the failings of our system has been highlighted recently—the great difficulty that migrants to this country face should they wish to spend considerable time with parents who are still overseas.

Under the current system wait times for temporary visas often blow out to 30 years. This is hardly suitable for elderly parents who want to spend some significant time with their children and often grandchildren. This is why the government committed before the election to introduce a new temporary sponsored parent visa. Last week I was pleased to welcome to the Deakin electorate the Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Alex Hawke. We hosted a roundtable discussion with members of the Chinese and Indian communities as part of this government’s consultation process to ensure that this new visa stream will be practically able to be used. I commend the minister and thank him for visiting the Deakin electorate. I commend the government on this policy.

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