The Minister for Immigration, the Hon. Tony Burke MP, appeared on the ABC’s Insiders earlier today and gave a woeful defence of the reason the Government abandoned multi-year planning for Australia’s immigration programme.
Shadow Minister for Immigration, Senator Paul Scarr said:
The Prime Minister announced that the Labor Government was moving to a multi-year planning model for immigration levels following a National Cabinet meeting back in August 2023. This was consistent with the Labor Government’s own review of the immigration system. Two years later, that approach has been dropped.
The Coalition pursued this in Senate estimates and there was no adequate explanation. Today we heard the Minister try and explain the change in approach. It was woeful.
The Minister says there needs to be: ‘flexibility’. Does the need for flexibility mean that you do not plan? It is a nonsense. How can we align planning for housing supply, infrastructure, and government services without adequate planning? How can we get all three levels of government working in the same direction without a plan?
When directly asked, the Minister also failed to address the issue of an appropriate level of immigration.
Net overseas migration for the year ended 31 March 2025 was 315,900. That is still 100,000 higher than the ten-year average prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is still 90,000 higher than the Labor Government’s own forecast for the 2026-27 year. It is still 80,000 higher than the long-term assumption of 235,000 used by Treasury.
But what is the Government’s plan? What is the Government’s target for planning assumptions? Again, no explanation. Now more than ever, the Labor Government must be open and transparent with the Australian people around immigration policy settings.
[ENDS]
