Angus Taylor has pledged to “regain control” of Australia’s borders, unveiling sweeping cuts to the migration system in a bid to stem the flow of support for One Nation.
The coalition would reduce net overseas migration from its annual level of nearly 300,000 people to about 100,000 in the first year if it won the next election, the opposition leader announced on Tuesday, October 6.
Net migration would then settle at 160,000 per year after four years, below Labor’s annual target of 225,000.
Mr Taylor said his policy represented the biggest cut to migration in Australia’s history, although his target is still higher than the net negative migration during COVID and One Nation’s goal of 130,000.
The rise of Pauline Hanson’s party in the polls has hollowed out the coalition’s voter base and brought immigration to the fore in political discourse.
The coalition’s plan echoes parts of One Nation’s proposal, including requiring most visa applications to be made offshore in an attempt to curtail so-called “visa hopping”.
As a result, bridging visas would be virtually eliminated.
“We will regain control of our borders, we will regain control of immigration in this country, and we will ensure that immigration policy is in the interests of our great country and no-one else," Mr Taylor told reporters in Sydney.
Reducing net migration would largely be achieved by cutting the stock of temporary visa holders — excluding New Zealanders — by about 650,000 over four years.
Under Labor, Australia had become a guest-worker economy, Mr Taylor said.
“Australia should be a home, not a hotel,” he said.
The brunt of the cuts would be achieved by abolishing temporary graduate visas, with some exceptions for health and education students, PhDs and regional universities.
That would effectively close off the pathway for foreign students educated in Australia to enter the workforce, migration policy expert Abul Rizvi said.
“We have significantly relied on students ... as a pipeline for skilled migrants to Australia,” he told AAP.
“There is merit in tightening that pipeline because it’s been abused, but virtually abolishing the pipeline is ... quite silly.”
Mr Taylor said the cuts would have a positive impact on the economy by better targeting the skills Australia needed and bringing in more skilled workers.
Business Council chief executive Bran Black welcomed the focus on high-skilled migrants and efforts to reduce the construction worker backlog, but questioned the impact on the economy.
“We must avoid a race to the bottom based on an arbitrary migration figure that could hurt Australia’s economy while worsening the skills shortage,” he said.
Working holiday maker visas, highly relied upon by farmers and regional communities, would be cut by 23,700.
A new skilled visa class for major projects, capped at 15,000 a year, and a new agriculture visa would also be introduced.
The humanitarian intake would be halved to 10,000 per year, while family reunion visas would remain unchanged.
Senator Hanson said the major parties created the migration mess and could not be trusted to fix it.
“The coalition has turned up late to the grand final after both teams have headed back to the change rooms, waving a photocopy of One Nation’s immigration policy,” she wrote on X.
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