Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan

The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.

In an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Tehan was repeatedly challenged to spell out the Coalition’s view on acceptable migration levels, but said: “I can tell you what it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be as high as what it is today.”

“What I have said is, we don’t want Labor’s ‘big Australia’. Labor are pursuing a big Australia,” he said.

Tehan said immigration was “too high in this nation” and the “intake of foreign students does need to be reduced, absolutely”.

In November 2021 while serving as trade minister in the Morrison government, Tehan issued a press release saying measures were needed to “help support the rapid return of international students when borders open again”.

Tehan was asked to reconcile his current stance with comments by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, in September 2022 that “we do need an increase in the migration numbers”.

He replied: “Well no one thought that the Labor party would say that 1.6 million without a plan should be coming in to this country over the next four years. That is the size of the city of Adelaide.”

Latest budget figures show net overseas migration to Australia was 510,000 last financial year, driven by a post-pandemic catchup of international students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holidaymakers.

Net overseas migration is expected to moderate to 375,000 this year (2023-24), before falling again to 250,000 in 2024-25. Forecasters expect the level to be 255,000 in 2025–26 and 235,000 in 2026–27.

When asked whether he wanted a bigger or smaller Australia, Tehan said: “What we want is a better Australia. We will announce what our better Australia will look like in the lead-up to the election.”

In December, the Labor government announced a migration strategy that would raise the bar for international students and some workers to get a visa. The government predicted net overseas migration would be 185,000 lower over five years as a result of its policies.

In the interview, Tehan also insisted that the opposition was “not at all” embarrassed for targeting the federal government over the arrest of a man released from immigration detention – only for police to withdraw the charges.

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On Thursday Victoria police said a 44-year-old Richmond man who had been released as a result of the high court ruling on indefinite detention had been charged with sexual assault, stalking and two counts of unlawful assault.

Just hours after the Coalition made the alleged assaults the centrepiece of its pursuit of the government in parliamentary question time on Thursday, Victoria police revealed they had cleared the former detainee and now allege another man – who there is no reason to believe was released from immigration detention – was involved in the incident.

The host of Insiders, David Speers, asked Tehan whether the developments were “a bit embarrassing for your colleagues who ripped into the government over a wrongful arrest”.

“Not at all,” he replied. “The facts were the facts at that time.”

Tehan said the Coalition was “perfectly entitled to go after the government” on the basis of a Victoria police statement.

The education minister, Jason Clare, told Sky News that politicians “rather than leaping to conclusions should let police do their job”.