Migration opponents are being warned big cuts to Australia’s intake numbers would cause havoc for the economy and impact housing targets.
Immigration and housing numbers were out of balance with each other but dramatic cuts were not the solution, minister Tony Burke said ahead of the release of net overseas migration numbers on Thursday.
“We’ve brought (net migration levels) down 45 per cent,” the Immigration Minister told Sky News on Sunday.
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“We’re continuing to cut it. We’re continuing to make sure it’s tailored to the needs of the nation.
“But what we will not do is create a situation where the people building houses can’t get workers, or a situation where your local community, particularly in the regions, can’t get a doctor.
“There are parts of the economy that absolutely rely on immigration, and there is no way in the world that we want to jeopardise that.”
The federal government is targeting a net overseas migration level of 225,000 people each year in the next three years after numbers spiked following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The figure for the 2024/25 financial year was 306,000 people, down from 429,000 the year before.
Mr Burke said the figures needed to be finely tuned to have the best impact for housing numbers.
“We need to keep, keep doing what we can to increase housing supply, and we need to make sure migration is tailored to what we can do there,” he said.
“If you go at migration the wrong way, then you can actually make the housing situation worse.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor used his budget reply speech in May to outline coalition plans to link immigration levels to the number of homes being built each year.
He said the plan was aimed at curbing mass migration, but did not provide an answer on what the numbers would be.
One Nation has proposed a cap of 130,000 visa places each year under its policy.
Opposition frontbencher Phillip Thompson said the federal government was unlikely to meet its immigration targets.
“I just look at where we’ve been historically and what we’ve, what we’ve seen over the last few years,” he told Sky News.
“I definitely don’t want to see any more ISIS supporters come to Australia, and I’d like to see the temporary exclusion order used more.”
