One Nation dismisses ‘wrecking ball’ threat from negative migration
One Nation has defended its pledge for net-negative migration after it was slammed by the government as an economic “wrecking ball”.
One Nation has again defended its migration policy for not including the cost of slashing temporary visa holders as Labor continues working on its own policy behind closed doors.
As Labor prepares to announce sweeping migration reforms of its own, Pauline Hanson pipped the government with a plan to reduce the number of temporary visa holders and overstayers by more than 750,000 over three years.
International student visas bore the brunt of the cuts, with visa grants set to be reduced from more than 290,000 to 115,000 per year and secondary visas for family members eliminated.
The policy outline distributed on Monday did not include economic impact.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce dismissed further criticism for not modelling the economic impact of the policy or using the Parliamentary Budget Office to do so.
“They’re not elected. I am,” he told the ABC’s National Forum on Monday night, questioning the quality of the analysis provided by government agencies.
“I’ve never seen forward estimates in any budgetary paper being even close to the mark of what it’s supposed to do, and so the will of the Australian people is so pronounced. This has to be dealt with.”
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When asked whether people with skills will come to Australia if they cannot bring their children or spouses, Joyce said it was a decision for an individual to make.
Experts warned One Nation’s pledge to deliver three years of negative migration has never happened except in times of severe economic stress or World War II.
Industry Minister Tim Ayres said if implemented, it would be a wrecking ball through regional economies.
“It would hurt the agriculture sector. It would hurt the hospitality and the aged care sectors in particular,” he said.
Coalition immigration spokesman Jonathon Duniam said he won’t be copying the homework of One Nation, promising an alternative policy in time
“I would never copy a piece of work that has not been modelled, has not been costed. We don’t understand the impact,” he told News24.
One Nation’s plan to slash Australia’s international student intake could clear the massive backlog of temporary visa applicants clogging the appeals system, but it could also “decimate” the university sector.
Governments had forced universities into relying on foreign student fees to balance their books, International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said.
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“The types of changes proposed will decimate an industry that employs 250,000 Australians and crucially keeps our public universities afloat,” he said.
Growing numbers of international students, and their families, remaining in Australia on bridging visas have been a major contributor to net overseas migration overshooting the government’s forecasts in recent years.
As the Home Affairs department has ramped up refusals for student visa applications, the number of students launching appeals in the Administrative Review Tribunal has exploded.
The total number of migration and refugee cases being assessed almost doubled from July 2024 to July 2026.
Labor earlier in 2026 passed legislation changing the way the tribunal conducts hearings for student visa appeals in a bid to speed up processing times and cut down the backlog.
Since the limit on in-person hearings for student visas took effect on June 1, it has shown some early promise.
Regardless, the student visa backlog still grew to 53,608 by the end of July.
Honeywood said there was evidence that a minority of international students were gaming the system and changes made by the federal government in recent years have attempted to clamp down on it.
“Unfortunately that has developed a lawyers’ picnic that allows any number of appeals and the Albanese government are finding ways to reduce appeal rights for non-genuine students,” he said.
One Nation promised to end “visa-hopping” by preventing students from applying for repeat visas and requiring most visa applications to be made from overseas.
-with AAP
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