Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil today committed the Labor government to “halving migration” by 1 July.
According to government figures, 510,000 people arrived in Australia last financial year, increasing competition for housing as Australians endured housing shortages and rental hikes.
Half of 510,000 is 255,000. O’Neil has committed Labor to cutting migration to 255,000 by 1 July.
In the first quarter of Financial Year 23-24, migration to Australia increased by 145,200 additional people to 548,800, according to ABS figures.
For Labor to achieve O’Neil’s target of halving migration to 255,000 they must limit net overseas migration to 109,800 people for the final nine months of this financial year.
O’Neil knows this will not happen and yet she has looked the Australian people in the eye on national television and misled them.
She should apologise immediately and admit the facts. Labor’s Big Australia policy has been a disaster leading to housing shortages, a rental crisis and enormous pressure on government services and the environment.
O’Neil’s new ambitious target is much lower than the target of 375,000 announced by the government in December’s MYEFO. At the time, O’Neil refused to commit the government to achieving that higher figure.
“It's not a target, it's an estimate,” O’Neil told journalists on 12/12/23.
Australians don’t trust this Labor government with its Big Australia policy to manage migration. They don’t trust Labor on border security after the mess the government has made releasing criminals from detention and watching asylum seeker boats return.
O’Neil has promised that migration will fall to 255,000 this financial year. It’s the first act of accountability from this Labor government, sadly it comes from a minister who does not know what she is talking about.
ENDS
