Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has dismissed claims from Australia’s peak business body that the Coalition’s new migration platform is a “flat tyre”, as one Labor figure says the opposition’s policy looks like it was written by artificial intelligence.
During a Wednesday morning television blitz designed to spruik the Coalition’s planned cuts to net overseas migration, Taylor was hampered by repeated questioning over whether the policy would hurt business and if it was designed to outdo One Nation’s policy.
“There is not just a cut to the numbers here, but an improvement in the standards and the skills of the people we are bringing to the country,” Taylor told Nine’s Today show. “The combination of those two things will ensure that it’s good for the budget and good for the economy.”
The Coalition has vowed to cut around 650,000 temporary migrants and attract skilled, higher tax-paying arrivals, in a policy that would seek to lower net overseas migration to a rate of 100,000 in the two years following the next election.
Taylor heralded the plan as “the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country”. It comes after One Nation announced a policy of pushing the country into negative net overseas migration for three years before settling at 130,000. Labor has announced adjustments to the migration system to meet a migration target of 225,000 per year.
Taylor dismissed claims he was chasing One Nation’s tail, telling Seven’s Sunrise that he did not know what Pauline Hanson’s party had set as its migration target.
The Coalition’s policy has been lambasted by the Business Council of Australia, which on Tuesday described it as a “big bucket of cold water over businesses across Australia”.
“It will reduce the level of service Australians expect and deserve from the care economy, education, construction, retail and beyond. It will shrink the economy as a whole,” council head Mike Zorbas said.
“It will also send the wrong signal to overseas organisations that want to partner with Australian businesses and employers on their next housing or commercial project. We can’t afford to repel other people’s investment as federal and state government deficits grow ever larger.”
During media appearances on Wednesday, Taylor repeatedly scoffed at the criticisms, arguing the policy would bolster the economy and that the Coalition would seek to develop policies “based on the national interest, not based on vested interest”.
Assistant Minister for Citizenship Julian Hill conceded on Wednesday that migration had “fallen a bit too slowly” since the post-pandemic peak. However, he was quick to criticise the Coalition’s announcement.
“I actually think it’s quite sad. The party of Menzies, of Howard, the party that’s been, frankly, the government of Australia for most of the last 80 years, is reduced to chasing One Nation around in a circle, in this panicked, desperate plea for a headline,” Hill told News24, formerly Sky News Australia.
Hill called for the full economic modelling of the Coalition’s policy to be published, a request Taylor dodged during appearances on multiple networks. The Coalition has said it will release the full costings closer to the next election, due by mid-2028.
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Nick Newling is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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