A proposal by Australia's One Nation party to significantly reduce the nation's temporary migrant population has drawn sharp criticism from the Labor party and industry groups, who warn it could devastate key economic sectors and exacerbate existing labor shortages.
One Nation unveiled a plan on Monday to cut the country's temporary migrant population by 750,000 over three years. The proposal aims to push net overseas migration below zero during a three-year period, followed by an annual cap of 130,000 arrivals. The plan would target Australia's temporary migrant population, which currently stands at around three million, by capping international student visas at 100,000 per year, tightening pathways to permanent residency, reducing temporary graduate visas, and removing secondary visa access for skilled migrants' families.
Labor frontbencher Murray Watt criticized the policy, arguing it would cripple industries that depend on migrant labor. "Those industries would be decimated if we don't have some form of migration to Australia," Watt said, citing abattoirs, hospitals, and aged care facilities as examples that rely on migrant workers.
Farming groups also expressed alarm, with National Farmers' Federation president Hamish McIntyre stating the cuts would have a "terrible impact" on farmers and could lead to increased food prices. He noted that one in seven farm workers is a working holiday maker and warned that growers could struggle to fill essential roles without sufficient migration.
Business organizations have also condemned the proposal. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar stated that while the chamber supports measures to improve system integrity, it does not endorse drastic cuts to meet an arbitrary net overseas migration number. "Major cuts that reduce skilled migration would damage our economy, hit the Budget and weaken our capacity to provide services for, and lift, living standards for Australians," McKellar said. He highlighted that businesses in sectors such as hospitality, aged care, and resources rely heavily on migrant labor, and that housing projects are being delayed due to workforce and skills shortages.
Mckellar argued that skills shortages, rather than migration levels, are the primary constraint on Australia's economy, identifying over-regulation and high taxes as additional hindering factors.
The Coalition has also questioned the viability of One Nation's proposal. Shadow Defence Minister Andrew Hastie stated that One Nation has not adequately explained the economic, fiscal, and human impacts of its plan, nor has it provided modeling or costing details. While the Coalition agrees that migration levels are too high under the current Labor government, Hastie indicated a preference for a more measured approach linked to housing supply, advocating for net overseas migration to be below the number of houses built annually.