Australians don’t trust Labor to manage immigration because they allowed 900,000 migrants to arrive over two years and they botched the release of criminals from immigration detention.
Labor says they don’t want a Big Australia but judge them on their actions not their words. In May, Labor said 1.5 million people would arrive over five years, today they are trumpeting their “cuts” to immigration that will see 1.625 million people arriving.
Labor opened the doors to record immigration when Australians were enduring housing shortages and a rental crisis. They cut congestion-busting infrastructure projects at the same time they approved record levels of immigration into the country.
Australians don’t trust Labor to manage immigration because the Albanese Government has issued more than 175,000 Covid work visas despite the pandemic ending before they were elected — and Labor is still issuing Covid work visas because they won’t close the program until next year.
Labor waited nine months to respond to the Parkinson review. For seven months they sat on the Nixon Review into organised crime’s exploitation of the visa system.
Why did Labor wait so long before taking action? Why the lack of urgency when migration is at record levels?
Under Labor, the number of temporary graduate visa holders in Australia increased by almost 100,000. Now Labor is admitting it got it wrong by winding back its own policy to provide more generous post-study work rights.
Labor continues to treat regional Australia as an afterthought.
The Government says it will launch a discussion paper next year to look at migration to regional Australia and the Working Holiday Maker scheme.
Why didn’t Labor include regional Australia as a priority in its response to the Parkinson Review?
Communities across regional Australia will be worried the new Skills in Demand visa will sever the link between temporary migrant workers and the regional businesses that sponsor them, creating a shortage of nurses, aged care staff, teachers, mechanics, and chefs across regional Australia.
Businesses that sponsor temporary workers to live and work in regional Australia will lose key staff, impacting their ability to operate. Labor’s changes will be a disincentive for them to sponsor skilled migrants because they will all end up in the cities.
The Coalition wants to see more detail about how the Government will strengthen integrity in the international education sector as well as potential reform to the points test, but both are promising areas to explore.
The Coalition wants a better Australia not Labor’s Big Australia.