‘We will not be pursuing Labor’s bigger Australia policy’: Coalition flags fight over immigration ahead of next election

The federal opposition is set to make immigration a key battleground ahead of the next election with the Coalition taking aim at Labor’s “big Australia policy”.

Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan spoke to 3AW’s Tom Elliott on Monday, declaring the current immigration rate was “completely unsustainable”.

The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed Australia’s net migration rate reached a record 518,000 in 2022-23, which Mr Tehan said described as “immigration the like of which this country has never seen”.

“Over the next four years, the government is bringing into this country 1.6 million people. Now that is the size of the city of Adelaide,” he said

“We’ve got a housing crisis, a rental crisis, people can’t get to see the doctor, (and) they’re cutting infrastructure spending so in our capital cities you’re seeing congestion grow and develop again.”

The shadow immigration minister said the Coalition was still in the process of developing it’s alternative immigration policy, but that the opposition “will not be pursuing Labor’s bigger Australia Policy”.

“We will announce our policy in the lead up to the next election. But it is far too high at the moment, and what you will see is a reduction in the numbers under us,” Mr Tehan said.

The shadow minister said the opposition needed to see what the figures are in the upcoming budget, but that they would be ready to announce a new immigration policy “well a truly before the next election”.

Mr Tehan also signalled a return to the region-based approach to immigration that the previous government had started to implement.

“You’ve got to have a proper immigration policy. And you’ve got to be able to outline it because there are certain skills that we need to bring into this country,” he said.

“And we’ve got to make sure that when we are bringing migrants into this country, they’re all not just going to Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane.

“We had some very good policies where we were bringing people into the regions, which meant you weren’t getting that growth in the capital cities. Now Labor have just abandoned that approach. And what we’re seeing now is our capital cities copping the brunt of immigration.

“And it is immigration the like of which this country has never seen. It is record upon record when it comes to what they’re doing in terms of issuing visas and bringing people in.

“And I can say to your listeners, there will be a very clear differentiation when it comes to immigration in the next election.”