‘A home not a hotel’: Coalition promises largest migration cut in Australian history

Migration levels would be slashed to a third of the current intake under the first three years of a Coalition government, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has announced, a plan he says would not hit the budget bottom line.

Net overseas migration would fall to 100,000 under the opposition’s plan, before rising to 160,000 in year four. The Coalition also wants to reduce the number of temporary visa holders by around 650,000 over four years.

“Australia should be a home, not a hotel. And right now, we’re seeing under Labor a guest worker economy,” Taylor said.

Nationals leader Matt Canavan pledged to reduce international student numbers by two thirds.

Net overseas migration is 292,000, and Labor is trying to bring that down to 225,000 in two years. Net overseas migration is the total number of people entering the country minus the number of people leaving.

Taylor said the Coalition’s proposed migration cuts would not cost the budget.

“We’ve been working closely with the Parliamentary Budget Office on analysis of our initiatives, and we are confident that this package is budget neutral,” he said.

“What we are proposing today is the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country.”

The party’s home affairs spokesman, Jonno Duniam, said the policy “has thought, and effort, analysis put into it”.

“It is about ensuring our country gets what it needs when it comes to the workforce and the people to do the jobs that we need doing in this country, so that our economy can continue to function,” he said.

One Nation previously advocated for 130,000 more people arriving than departing. But last month, under pressure from its right-wing online base, it backflipped and released a policy to go into negative territory, meaning more people would depart than arrive, for three years. After three years of negative inflows, One Nation said the figure would then settle at the 130,000 figure.

This means the Coalition’s policy lands somewhere in between One Nation’s uncosted plan and Labor’s forecasts.

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said on Tuesday his party was driving the political agenda after this masthead revealed the Coalition was preparing to unveil its plan for deep migration cuts.

“I congratulate the Coalition for basically coming up with our policy,” Joyce told Nine’s Today show. “We are moving both the Labor Party, we’re moving the Coalition.

Asked about what One Nation’s proposal would do to the economy, Joyce claimed Australians’ priority was bringing migration numbers down and dismissed the need to cost policies.

“If you want to be run by the public parliamentary budget office… let’s put them on the balance sheet, and you can go vote for them. If you want to be run by people who reflect what you wish, then One Nation is a very good place to go,” he said.

More to come