‘Don’t believe everything’: PM denies reversing migration position
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied reports he will reverse a previous position to cut refugee intake almost in half as his government tries to fight off One Nation.
The Australian Financial Review reported that Labor will reduce the annual refugee intake from 20,000 to 13,750.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied reversing his position on refugees. Brent Lewin
The policy has not been officially announced but has reportedly already factored into the government’s net overseas migration target of 225,000.
Albanese – who had successfully fought for Labor to increase the figure to 27,000 by 2025 under previous leader Bill Shorten – was quizzed about his change of position on Thursday.
“Well, no, not necessarily. Don’t believe everything you read in the Fin [Australian Financial Review],” he said at Thursday’s Bush Summit.
The prime minister did, however, say his government was working to crack down on temporary visa holders who try to “game the system” by changing their visa category.
His Immigration Minister, Tony Burke, is working on a suite of measures to bring down migration but has yet to reschedule the announcement after a cancelled speech following heated debate within the party.
Pauline Hanson has made migration a headline policy and says she would cut net overseas migration to 130,000 following confusion created by her new MP, David Farley.
At the same Bush Summit event on Thursday, the One Nation leader reiterated her target was 130,000 people per year – although she wouldn’t count certain visa holders towards that number.
“On top of that, you can have your (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) workers, you can have your visa holders in different ones in the country,” she said.
Australia’s net overseas migration intake last year was 301,000 people. Getty
“The trouble with the Labor Party. We’ve got three million visa holders in Australia. We’re full. The foreign students, the people they bring in, the graduates, postgraduates, all their families they bring in-that needs to be cut back.”
Net overseas migration refers to the total number of people migrating to Australia, minus those leaving, for more than 12 months.
This figure includes Australian citizens who are moving abroad or returning and some visa holders like international students, working holidaymakers and family reunions.
Albanese defended his government’s record on migration as he said his move to cut the net overseas migration from 301,000 people to 225,000 a year was not in response to One Nation’s popularity.
Pauline Hanson has made migration a headline policy. Ross Swanborough
“We’re responding to the national need,” he said.
“There is a current spike in the support for One Nation, quite clearly, but we’ve responded, we started lowering the numbers well before that occurred because we recognise that we want to get that right to assist the Australian economy.”
Greens senator David Shoebridge accused Labor of siding with One Nation on migration.
“The difference between One Nation and Labor is that, when One Nation attacks refugees, they don’t then pat themselves on the back for how much they support multiculturalism,” he said.
“Let’s put this in perspective: the total number of visas Australia provides to refugees each year doesn’t even fill one-fifth of the seats at the MCG.
“In a country the size of Australia, this is a very modest number of people, and anyone trying to say otherwise is just scapegoating people with a different colour skin.”
Meanwhile, the Coalition is yet to reveal its net overseas migration figure but says it will tie it to housing supply.
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