The Coalition supports greater engagement with our Pacific neighbours, including through employment opportunities in Australia for citizens of Pacific Island nations and Timor-Leste.

It was the previous Coalition Government which delivered on this commitment through the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which has been enormously successful.

We support a Pacific Engagement Visa in principle but will not support legislation that establishes a lottery scheme for running our immigration system and a fee mechanism to establish it.

Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan said: “Australia’s immigration policy should target young, highly skilled migrants who can make an economic contribution to our country and temporary migrants who make an economic contribution by addressing workforce shortages.

“Australian citizenship is too important to be decided by pulling a name out of a hat. Migrants to this nation should be incentivised to come for work, not to access the full range of Social Security benefits and Medicare.”

Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific Michael McCormack said Labor’s proposals also threatened economic livelihoods in the Pacific.

“There are concerns that Pacific Island nations could lose young citizens permanently to Australia, depleting workers who are needed to sustain their home countries,” Mr McCormack said.

“We are also concerned that the absence of any requirements for prior work experience in Australia will increase the risks of visa recipients and their families having unsuccessful settlement experiences in Australia.”