The Australian government has again postponed a significant overhaul of its migration policy, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stating the matter will not be on the agenda for the forthcoming national cabinet meeting. This delay comes as recent polling suggests immigration is a key issue driving voters towards Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.
The government had intended to announce changes to its migration settings earlier in August, but a planned address by the home affairs minister was canceled at short notice due to internal disagreements within the cabinet. Albanese indicated that a finalized policy is still some time away, emphasizing the need to "get it right."
"We have a series of plans in place. There's more work to do, and we'll work on that and make announcements at appropriate times," Albanese told ABC Radio. "We want to make sure we get it right, and we have got migration policy as front and centre."
Labor has projected an annual net overseas migration figure of 225,000. However, debate has intensified following claims from One Nation MP David Farley that the party's figures would include an additional 100,000 people annually, exceeding Labor's target. Senator Hanson later clarified on social media that the party remains committed to a target of 130,000 people per year.
Albanese cited this discrepancy as evidence of One Nation's incoherence on the issue. "One Nation on Sunday pointed out the hypocrisy when they said 130,000 plus an additional more than 100,000 because you need essential workers in aged care, in agriculture, in all of these areas as well," he stated. He also noted that the business community has highlighted the importance of skilled migration, particularly in the construction sector.
Labor MP Dan Repacholi acknowledged the validity of concerns regarding the impact of migration policy on regional communities. "David Farley's right, we do need to make sure that we're looking after people in rural and regional Australia," Repacholi told Nine's Today program. "We need to make sure migration is at the right numbers. Because we need to make sure that we're getting the fruit off the trees, we're getting the grapes picked in both of our areas, and we're making sure that we're filling these jobs. We have thousands and thousands of jobs around the country that aren't being filled right now and we need to make sure we're doing that."
An Utting Research poll published in Nine newspapers surveyed 1,000 One Nation supporters, revealing that immigration was the primary concern for voters who had shifted their allegiance to the minor party. The poll indicated that 91% of these voters believed the country was heading in the wrong direction, with 39% attributing this sentiment to immigration. This issue ranked higher than cost-of-living concerns (35%), politicians and government (32%), and the economy (26%).
The coalition has not yet specified an annual net overseas migration target but has indicated that any figure would be linked to housing completions. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor suggested the coalition's target would likely be below 200,000 people annually, stating, "It's got to be a number that we can deal with. What I can say is it'll be substantially below the numbers we have seen in recent years."
Taylor further commented, "The real mistake we've seen in recent years is to allow the immigration numbers to get way above what we can cope with as a country, and the single most important indicator of that is how many houses we've got."