Labor’s migration-cut policy faces heat before speech
The government’s migration policy is already being met with scepticism, as it defends delaying the announcement ahead of the official release.
Source: AAP
Intense scrutiny has already been placed on Labor’s migration policy despite it yet to be officially released, as ministers downplay reports of internal disagreements over the hot-button issue.
Efforts to knock 75,000 off the annual net migration rate will be the centrepiece of Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s speech to the National Press Club on Thursday.
The policy is expected to target family visas for foreign students and the work rights of those on bridging visas, but that has not yet been officially confirmed.
Cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek defended the delay in releasing the policy and dismissed suggestions the migration debate sparked dissent from within government ranks.
“Were you in the cabinet meeting, because you were in a different meeting from me,” she told reporters on Thursday.
“We’ve had sensible, thoughtful discussions on this. We’ve taken the time to get it right.”
It’s the immigration minister’s second run at announcing migration changes, six weeks after canning his first due to cabinet disagreements.
Opposition frontbencher James Paterson has accused Labor of refusing to collaborate with the coalition on migration.
“If the government was actually serious about reducing numbers and lifting standards, then we could have worked with them,” Paterson told News24.
“We provided a list of suggestions and ideas … that would actually would have reduced those numbers and lifted those standards, but the government wasn’t interested in our ideas.”
A proposal to cut three-quarters of a million migrants over three years has been floated by One Nation, while the coalition wants to slash net overseas migration to about 170,000 a year in line with housing construction and will not support Labor’s changes.
After a week of pressure on One Nation after it announced its planned migration cuts without including the cost to the economy, MP Barnaby Joyce said he is yet to be convinced Labor will take definitive action.
“I’ve been listening this morning, and it’s sort of all compassion, but a different number. I don’t quite know how that works,” he said.
“You’ve got to be tough, unfortunately.”
Industry and immigration experts have flagged significant concerns ahead of Burke’s speech.
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Clamouring for headline migration figures to come down has left industry leaders terrified slapdash cuts will cripple overstretched workforces.
Those with squeezed rosters acknowledge the regime needs streamlining.
“The first change needs to be cracking down on gaming of the system,” Australian Hotels Association chief executive James Goodwin said on Wednesday.
“Arbitrary cuts to different programs in due course may not be needed with an improved system.”
Burke’s office was contacted for comment.
Former immigration department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said the government was paying for sleeping at the wheel while post-pandemic migration exploded to 555,000 in the year to July 2023.
“They convinced themselves … it was just catch-up and it was nothing to worry about,” he said.
“Once you’ve had such a huge wave of migration, there are flow-on consequences.”
“It would be mad (for Labor) not to take sufficient effective long-term action now.”
Australia’s net overseas migration in the three months to March will be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics about an hour before Burke starts speaking.
-with AAP
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