Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor defended the Coalition’s promise to slash net migration to 100,000 a year while raising income and English-language thresholds for every major visa category. Taylor framed the policy as an economic reform, saying that “reducing numbers and lifting standards” would boost labour-productivity and ease housing shortages. The plan would axe graduate and bridging visas, halve humanitarian places and introduce stricter integrity checks. Taylor also distanced the Coalition from One Nation’s proposal to ban arrivals from certain ‘high-risk’ countries, insisting assessment should be “about character, not nationality”. Nevertheless, critics describe the policy suite as the steepest immigration contraction in Australian history. Economists interviewed by SBS warned that while higher entry thresholds could lift per-capita GDP, the overall contraction risks shrinking the workforce, reducing tax revenues and undermining sectors such as aged care, resources and higher education that depend on foreign talent. For employers the most immediate concern is visa processing. The Coalition would create an Enhanced Screening Coordination Centre combining intelligence, police and border agencies – a move that could lengthen background checks and delay start dates for inbound assignees. Mobility teams should build longer lead-times into project schedules and consider alternative visa subclasses that may escape the cuts (e.g., the proposed Skills-in-Demand visa). Should the policy proceed, organisations with large cohorts of temporary migrants will need to audit their workforce, identify at-risk employees and accelerate permanent-residence pathways where possible. Stakeholder engagement with Treasury and Home Affairs during the opposition consultation phase (open until November) is advisable.
Source: SBS News
