One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson want to drastically slash Australia’s temporary migration program. Photo: Facebook.
Australia’s temporary migration program would be slashed by more than 750,000 over three years by refusing more visas for international students and the families of skilled workers, in a bold plan One Nation is releasing on Monday (14 September).
But the Federal Government says the minor party’s policy is a recipe for wreaking havoc on the nation’s construction industry and healthcare sector.
Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce want to bring the annual target for overseas migration down to 130,000 a year, compared to the current level of 300,000, with government forecasts bringing it down to 245,000 this year and 225,000 after that.
To settle on the 130,000 annual target, Senator Hanson wants to first push the migration program temporarily into the negative by cutting more than 750,000 foreign temporary visa holders.
The One Nation move aims to tap into a growing sentiment in some parts of the community that Australia’s housing availability and public service delivery are being adversely impacted by migrant numbers.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the latest population and immigration figures on Thursday, but Senator Hanson is pointing to a “blowout” in temporary visa holders from just over 2 million in 2022 to 3 million today.
She said Australians have “had enough” of “mass migration”.
“The Labor-Liberal political cartel has sacrificed Australian living standards to serve vested interests demanding continued mass migration,” she said.
“Vested interests and elite economists will shriek at the prospect of these cuts.”
Under the One Nation plan, there will be no new cap on temporary skilled worker visas, which would remain demand-driven, but secondary visas for family members would be largely denied.
International student visas would be capped at 100,000 a year, targeting those courses One Nation decides are “lower-quality” and being used as a pathway to more permanent Australian residency.
People overstaying their visas (an estimated 80,000 people) would be given three months to leave the country or face forced deportation and lifetime bans on returning to Australia.
A new uncapped visa, which the party expects will add up to about 15,000 a year, would aim to attract “high-value” postgraduate students in courses such as engineering, technology sciences and maths.
Labor has panned the idea, with Health Minister Mark Butler dismissing the One Nation policy as a “tabloid headline” aimed at ruining the economy.
“This would absolutely smash industries, like construction, that rely very heavily on migrant workers,” the minister said on Monday.
“But [it would] also devastate health and aged care and disability sectors that particularly rely on migrant workers – especially in rural communities where it’s very difficult to find Australian-trained doctors.”
Environment Minister Murray Watt also used a morning media appearance to criticise the plan.
He focussed much of his comments on the impact the policy would have on regional communities.
“We do recognise that despite the work we’ve already done to reduce the numbers of migrants in Australia, there’s more to be done,” Senator Watt said.
“But we need to do this in a way that balances the economic needs of Australia as well.
“I don’t know when Pauline Hanson or Barnaby Joyce last week walked into an abattoir in regional Australia full of migrant workers, or when they last walked into a hospital, an aged care facility; those industries would be decimated if we don’t have some form of migration to Australia.”
The Coalition is also not impressed with the policy.
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said One Nation should release the modelling behind its “poorly thought-through” plan.
“My concern with what we’ve seen this morning from One Nation is it’s simply headline numbers without any detail of the modelling that’s underneath it,” Senator Hume said.
“Already today, economists have come out and said that potentially with the numbers that One Nation are throwing around you could send the economy into recession.
“That means everybody will end up paying for a poorly thought-through migration policy.”
The government and the Opposition have not yet released their latest migration policies, with Labor reportedly still embroiled in internal dissent on the topic.
Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor met last week to discuss migration, but the Prime Minister and Opposition have so far been unable to reach anything close to a united position.
“It seemed that there were a number of things that we had proposed to the government that they simply have refused to adopt,” Senator Hume said.
“We’ve been pretty clear. We want to make sure that we link our migration numbers to the number of houses that are built … and that will then put a cap on the number of people that can come to the country.”
