Amid claims of ‘mass migration’, Labor hopes a measured approach will take the hot air out of the debate

With business groups already suffering from skills shortages even with high immigration, Tony Burke articulated why he believed Labor can win the argument against those competing to announce the lowest targeted Nom. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP View image in fullscreen With business groups already suffering from skills shortages even with high immigration, Tony Burke articulated why he believed Labor can win the argument against those competing to announce the lowest targeted Nom. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Analysis Amid claims of ‘mass migration’, Labor hopes a measured approach will take the hot air out of the debate Patrick Commins The country’s migration settings have become a source of discontent – but will Tony Burke’s approach be seen as the right mix? Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Tony Burke has promised to make Labor’s existing migration policy work better rather than announcing a dramatic cut in numbers, arguing that populist promises to slash net overseas migration will “trash Australian services and trash the Australian economy”. The home affairs minister’s message was immediately endorsed by employer groups, who over recent days have made it clear that steps to arbitrarily slash migrant numbers would compound already severe skills shortages and hurt businesses, especially those in the regions. “We need immigration. We just need to make sure that it is targeted for the needs of Australia in numbers and across the different categories that work for our economy,” Burke said in his long-awaited address to the National Press Club on Thursday. “We talk about the need for extra housing. It’s pretty hard to get a house built without having a plasterer involved. In both Sydney and Melbourne, close to two-thirds of the plasterers we have were born overseas.” Bran Black, the chief executive of the Australia" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="205910" data-entity-type="organization">Business Council in Australia, welcomed the government’s efforts to “restore integrity to the migration system”, even as he argued against new rules that would limit the length of stay for most backpackers. “The starting point for migration policy should not be a number to cut to, but what our economy genuinely needs,” Black said. “Almost one in three occupations in this country are short of workers right now. That translates to not enough workers building homes, caring for us in hospitals and aged care homes, delivering infrastructure and powering the energy transition. That is the challenge that any migration policy should be looking to solve.” Labor has taken a long time to come up with its policy prescription to fix the country’s migration settings which, after the post-pandemic surge in new arrivals, have become a source of growing popular discontent. Spurious claims of “mass migration” have fanned the flames of this discontent, but few would argue that our system is working well and in the best interests of the country – or in the best interests of a ballooning number of people trapped in a kind of temporary visa limbo that has strained public infrastructure and patience. Alan Gamlen, the director of the ANU’s migration hub, said Burke appeared to have announced the right mix of measures that would give the government the capacity to regulate an out-of-control temporary visa system without damaging the economy. “They don’t seem to have fallen into the trap of chasing a net migration number,” Gamlen said. “Burke made it pretty clear, and in a convincing way, that this is the result of a well-considered process that has been going on for a while and which addresses long-term structural issues, rather than just a kneejerk response to One Nation.” One Nation has committed to lowering net overseas migration to 130,000 a year, and the Coalition somewhere between 150,000 and 170,000. In comparison, Burke stuck to the government’s forecast of 225,000 people by 2027-28. He did, however, acknowledge that there was now a public expectation that the government would pull the levers necessary to get there. “net overseas migration has been viewed as a budget forecast. Last couple of years, people have talked about it as a budget target,” he said. “That is a very different way of looking at it. But given that we have the challenges we have with housing in Australia at the moment, I do think we need to be able to have these additional tools to make sure that what is published and forecast is reached.” With business groups already suffering from skills shortages even at a time of high immigration, the home affairs minister articulated why he believed the government can win the political argument against those competing to announce the lowest targeted Nom. “The lower [Nom] levels will trash Australian services and trash the Australian economy,” he said. Burke pointed out that denying skilled foreign workers the opportunity to bring in family members – as proposed by One Nation – would not free up more visas for more workers. Instead, that approach would slash the number of foreign doctors, tradies, nurses and aged care workers willing to come to our country. “The proportion of doctors who come to Australia with family attached to their application? 50%. How many construction workers come with family attached to their application? 50%. How many nurses and aged care workers come with family attached to their application? Two-thirds.” Whether Burke and the Albanese government can convince the public its measured approach is enough is an open question. “Let’s see if this lets out some of the hot air in the migration debate,” Gamlen said. Explore more on these topics Australia news Australian immigration and asylum Tony Burke Business (Australia news) Australian economy analysis Share Reuse this content