Extracts from Dave's interview on ABC Radio World Today Program Tuesday October 20, 2009 12.18pm

If we are going to have a discussion about immigration in the country, let's have a balanced and informed discussion but let's look at where the real threat to Australia's economic and Australian working people's economic security is and that is in the proliferation of temporary visas and also in the proliferation of undocumented workers who are here.

And most of those people are stepping off jet planes. They are not coming here on leaky boats.
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We don't want to see a situation where a few of the most desperate marginalised people in the world who come here on leaky boats, most of whom it appears are genuine in seeking refugee status, are demonised.

While at the same time we have an immigration policy which is promoting massive numbers of people in the country who have no employment security, who have no security in terms of their future in this country.

We don't want to see immigration policy transferred into a situation where people are expendable labour at the behest of big business simply able to be chucked out of the country when business has finished with them and where their status is used to push down wages and conditions for Australian resident workers.

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I think that it would be great to see the Labor Government out here leading and staring down those who want to appeal to the dark side of Australia's history and actually leading on the issue as we saw even under the Fraser era.

Malcolm Fraser was prepared to do on the Vietnamese boat people and the other thing that we think needs to happen is there needs to be a proper and balanced debate about migration in this country including the impact of the temporary migration schemes that exist on the security of Australian working people.

Listen to Dave Noonan's full interview on the ABC's World Today program.

Other messages from Dave Noonan