Business and miners back Labor's migration policies, but farmers angry - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Minister for Immigration Tony Burke announced Labor's much-anticipated migration policy reforms on Thursday.

He said Labor wants to push net overseas migration (NOM) down to 225,000 people a year, from 292,000 where it currently sits.

He also wants to tighten visa rules for international students and backpackers, and to increase efforts to remove visa overstayers from the country.

His announcement came days after One Nation unveiled plans to push NOM into negative territory for three years before imposing an annual cap of 130,000, and as the Coalition finalises plans for a policy that is expected to pursue NOM of between 150,000 and 170,000 people.

"We are now walking straight into an argument," Mr Burke declared on Thursday.

"We have people who will be going to the next election effectively arguing that in regional areas you'll have large-scale hospital closures and doctors that you just can't find.

"It means a whole lot of aged care just won't be available for elderly relatives, if they were to implement the sorts of numbers they're talking about."

But while the mining industry has welcomed Labor's policy announcement, farmers are furious, and the hospitality industry is not happy.

Labor plans to introduce a ballot system for the Working Holiday Maker program, and to set processing times for applications for the program to three months. 

It wants to crack down on rogue migration agents. 

It wants to introduce a No Further Stay condition to all visitor visas to ensure that they are only used by genuine visitors and not as a pathway to extending a stay in Australia.

And it wants to improve the integrity of student visas by stopping visa hopping, among other measures.

Andrew McKellar, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), said the policy package was a "material toughening" of the migration system, but it could still be improved.

"On balance, I think it's a fairly reasonable plan that's been put forward," he told The Business.

"It certainly doesn't do significant damage to the economy, but it does leave some gaps.

"If you compare what we've seen in some of the other proposals that are around, you know, One Nation's plan was put out earlier this week, that involved very deep cuts.

"It would plunge the Australian economy into a deep recession, and it would also curtail the long-term growth potential of the economy. That would be bad for business.

Mr McKellar said the overall level of migration under Labor's plan would also be reduced, "which is something that is acknowledged the public has been calling for."

"I hope this can restore some confidence in the system going forward," he said.

Andrew McKellar says One Nation's migration policies would cause a "deep recession" while Labor's policy is "responsible." (Source: The Business)

Labor has announced its policy at a time when concerns have been growing about high rates of immigration and rapid population growth.

But on Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released new data showing that the post-COVID shock to Australia's population has largely receded.

The data showed that Australia's population is now growing more slowly than in the years before COVID.

The data also showed that the "natural increase" in Australia's population (births minus deaths) has been slowing down significantly in recent years. 

On a rolling annual basis, natural increase is close to its lowest level on record.

So Australia's overall population growth is being kept afloat by net overseas migration, but net overseas migration is also still falling from its post-COVID peak.

However, Mr Burke said he still wants to see net overseas migration continue to decline from its current rate of around 292,130 people to 225,000 a year by 2028.

If one assumes that the natural increase in Australia's population remains around 100,000 people a year, Labor's lower NOM target will therefore push overall population growth down to around 325,000 a year.

The last time Australia's population grew by that little was in 2011 (excluding the chaotic COVID period).

In the past 12 months, Australia's population grew by 392,728 people, which is far fewer than in 2008 (459,504 people), and fewer than in 2012 (405,826 people) and 2017 (407,984 people).

Labor's new migration policy has upset farmers and the hospitality and tourism industries. They say the political focus on population growth is leading to damaging policies.

James Goodwin, Accommodation Australia's chief executive, said the hotel industry needs migration due to chronic workforce shortages and this will make things worse.

"It will now be harder for hotels to access the workers we need and the changes will increase competition in an already tight labour market."

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) thinks Labor's plan to restrict Working Holiday Makers will have unintended consequences.

"Targeting working holiday makers makes no logical sense — they are a motivated and mobile workforce who help fill seasonal work, especially in the regions," AHA chief executive Stephen Ferguson said.

The National Farmers Federation (NFF) warned the Albanese government was putting Australia's food security, regional economies and farm safety at risk.

"If the government wants to end rorts, then it should target the rorts," NFF president Hamish McIntyre said.

"It should not punish the farmers doing the right thing or the regional communities that depend on a workforce pathway that has helped feed this country for decades."

Andrew McKellar, ACCI's chief executive, agreed that tourism, hospitality, accommodation, and restaurants and cafes were a "critical miss" in the government's migration policies and those industries would suffer.

But the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has warmly welcomed the government's decision to give greater priority to skilled resource workers in its new migration system.

"The government's plan makes sense," MCA chief executive Tania Constable said on Thursday.

Tania Constable says the federal government has been listening to the mining industry's concerns. (ABC News: Phil Hemingway)

"The MCA raised serious concerns in August about changes introduced in July that pushed many skilled applicants outside Australia further down the visa processing queue.

"Those changes risked making it harder for mining companies to bring in highly specialised workers who are in short supply in Australia, despite skilled migrants making up just 1.24 per cent of the minerals workforce.

"Today's announcement shows the government has heard those concerns. 

"The real measure of these changes will be whether an Australian mining company looking for an engineer, geologist, metallurgist or other critical specialist can actually get that person here faster."

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) also welcomed Labor's changes, saying they would provide a "balanced, long-term direction for Australia's migration system."

"Of particular importance to the residential building industry is the recognition that skilled tradespeople are essential to increasing Australia's housing supply," HIA chief economist Tim Reardon said.

"If these reforms successfully combine greater recognition of trade qualifications, priority visa processing for construction workers and more efficient recognition of overseas skills, they represent a significant improvement in Australia's approach to building the construction workforce.

"These policies can work to mitigate the boom-to-bust cycles that the building industry has endured over recent years."