Pauline Hanson deletes social media post on migration amid One Nation policy uncertainty

Pauline Hanson has deleted a months-old social media post about migration, as One Nation’s two lower-house MPs contradict each other on what their headline policy actually is.

Farrer MP David Farley suggested the party’s net overseas migration target will not be “too different” from Labor’s 225,000, prompting Hanson to walk back his remark.

Taking to X on Sunday, the party leader said her policy is to slash last year’s net overseas migration number of 301,000 people to 130,000.

New England MP Barnaby Joyce told Sunrise on Monday that Farley had misspoke, adding that “When people are new in parliament, they can get things incorrect”.

Amid the confusion, Hanson appears to have deleted an X post from March about her party’s policy.

According to an image of the now-deleted post captured by The Sydney Morning Herald, Hanson stated she would cap overseas arrivals at 130,000 people and subtract last year’s departures of 230,000 to arrive at her net overseas migration figure.

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That would equate to a net overseas migration figure of minus 100,000.

In contradiction, the One Nation website still states that its policy is to cap annual visas rather than net overseas migration at 130,000.

A One Nation spokesperson reiterated that the policy is to cut the net overseas migration to 130,000 people, which they said is less than half the current level under Labor.

“The cuts will come from fewer international students and their dependents, a substantial reduction in temporary graduate visas and dependents, and a much more targeted skilled migration program focused on the skills Australia genuinely needs,” the spokesperson said.

“Short-term seasonal agricultural workers who don’t meet the Australian Bureau of Statistics residency test are not counted in NOM figures.

“They come for limited periods – often living on farms or regional properties while they work – and return home.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said One Nation cannot “get their act together to have a serious policy on anything”.

“One Nation, if there’s one policy they’ve spoken about over the 30 years that Pauline Hanson has been active in politics, is migration,” he told reporters on Monday.

“They can’t even get a policy on that.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor told reporters on Monday his political opponents are “all over the shop” on their migration policy.

Net overseas migration is the net gain or loss of the population through migration and includes Australians who are moving abroad or returning home.

Last year, 301,000 more people migrated to than left Australia.

Labor, the Coalition and One Nation all agree that figure is too high.

Labor has set a target of 225,000 people per year and was set to unveil a suite of drastic changes to the migration settings earlier this month off the back of One Nation’s rising popularity.

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But Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke abruptly postponed his announcement after failing to finalise the policy and has yet to reschedule it.

“We won’t make any apology for having a consultative and essential process on what we’re working through,” he told reporters on Friday.

The Coalition have tied migration to housing but have not put a figure on its net overseas migration target.

Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg earlier this month declared the net overseas migration figure would have to be 180,000 a year to ensure housing supply matched population.

He said this would be achieved through “modest reductions in international students, working holidaymakers, and some unskilled workers”.

Taylor said his frontbencher’s speech was not policy and was rather just his personal views.

“I’ve made clear to him that his job is to express the views of the Coalition and the senior team of which he is a member,” he told reporters at the time.

National Leader Matt Canavan knocked back Bragg’s call to cut working holidaymakers, saying they are crucial to rural parts of the country.

Outgoing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, who announced he will retire from politics this year, is leading the internal process for the Coalition’s migration policy.

He told the ABC on Monday the policy is unlikely to be ready this year.