Coalition will cut immigration says Opposition leader Tony Abbott

OPPOSITION leader Tony Abbott has vowed to put a lid on Australia's population growth by slashing immigration by nearly half over the next three years.

Mr Abbott will announce today a Coalition Government would cut net overseas migration from nearly 300,000 to 170,000, and reduce the nation's population growth from 2.1 per cent to 1.4 per cent.

Echoing the mantra of former prime minister John Howard, Mr Abbott told The Sunday Telegraph: "We will determine who comes to our country and the circumstances under which they come."

The planned cuts will focus on family and student visa programs, while skilled migration would largely be quarantined.


Mr Abbott said a "fair dinkum" debate was needed after Prime Minister Julia Gillard's attempts to distance the population debate from immigration levels.

The Coalition's policy, to be announced today in the lead up to the first and only leaders debate tonight, sets up an historic split on bipartisan immigration policy.

The immigration debate fired up again yesterday after a report that 800 asylum-seekers would arrive on our shores over the next month.

Mr Abbott said the Coalition would keep skilled migration numbers up, but would crack down on "dubious educational and family-reunion applicants".

Although the Coalition doesn't nominate a population figure, the growth rate would put Australia on track for a population in 2050 of well below 36 million.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said although the Coalition believed that Australia was a nation of migrant success stories, "these do not justify a population blank cheque for the future".

Mr Morrison added that population growth was in danger of becoming a lazy substitute for improving productivity.

"Fuelling population growth today must not rob future generations of the quality of life and opportunities we enjoy in the future," he said.

"We believe Australians are looking for payment up front on infrastructure and services before they will support a higher rate of population growth."

Australia has the highest population growth rate in the major economies of the developed world, higher even than the world's most populous countries, China and India.

So far this year, the country's population has increased by nearly a quarter of a million people, to 22,397,892 early yesterday afternoon, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics population clock.

The population growth during the 35 days of the election campaign will total 44,520.

Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke told Sky News yesterday that Australia's population debate was not about immigration, but infrastructure.

"It's not an immigration debate," Mr Burke said.

"It's a debate primarily that deals with the spread of population. It has to be about quality of life."

The Coalition policy announcement today will also commit the government to population growth rates being set by a renamed Productivity Commission, which will be called the Productivity and Sustainability Commission, based on delivery of improved infrastructure and services.

Two-thirds of the permanent migration program (which totals about 180,000 a year) will be reserved for skilled migration.

Sponsored skilled-work visas and temporary skilled-work visas (known as 457 visas) would also be quarantined at existing levels, the humanitarian intake would also remain the same.

Mr Morrison said WA and Queensland would be given preferential treatment and a greater share of immigrants.

The policy would also settle more humanitarian and refugee migrants in regional areas.

The Coalition would begin a White Paper on immigration if they win office to set out a detailed plan for enacting the cuts to immigration programs, and release a discussion paper by the end of the year on the topic.

Although Mr Morrison would not detail where the cuts would be made, he indicated that family and student visa programs were the bulk of the remaining visa classes that were not protected under the Coalition's new policy.

Source:http://www.news.com.au/features/federal-election/coalition-will-cut-immigration-says-opposition-leader-tony-abbott/story-fn5tar6a-1225896532324