Industry and business groups are scrambling to assess the practical impacts of One Nation’s surprise policy – released on 14 September – to slash Australia’s temporary migrant population by 750,000 places over the next three years. The party says it would achieve the reduction by capping new grants of student, graduate and temporary skilled visas; eliminating secondary (family) visas for international students; forcing most temporary-visa applicants to apply offshore; and stepping-up removals of people who have overstayed or breached visa conditions. Farmers, builders, hospitality operators and universities argue the proposal would trigger an immediate labour crunch at a time when one-in-three occupations is already on the national skills-shortage list. The National Farmers’ Federation warned of a repeat of the COVID-19 produce bottlenecks that pushed supermarket prices up 25 per cent, while the Housing Industry Association said the policy would further slow delivery of the Albanese Government’s ambitious housing-supply targets. Universities Australia and the Group of Eight pointed out that international education now supports 250,000 domestic jobs and is Australia’s fourth-largest export. They fear a one-third cut to student visas would strip billions from research budgets just as global competitors court the same talent pool. Business Council chief executive Bran Black added that with an ageing population, economic growth “cannot be sustained without a healthy inflow of skilled migrants.” While some regional MPs welcomed the promise to leave the Working Holiday Maker and Pacific Labour Mobility schemes untouched, analysts say those programs alone cannot plug the talent gap in sectors such as healthcare, advanced manufacturing and IT. Treasury modelling suggests such deep cuts to net overseas migration would shave at least 0.7 percentage points from GDP growth each year and exacerbate already-severe wage pressures. The proposal has injected migration firmly into the 2027 federal election debate. Labor ministers have dismissed the policy as economically reckless but are expected to unveil their own package of visa integrity measures within weeks. Employers, meanwhile, are urging bipartisan consultation – rather than headline-grabbing quotas – to ensure that any reforms protect both economic competitiveness and community confidence in the migration program.
Source: SBS News
