Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, trailing in the polls ahead of next month's general election, today campaigned on the hot-button issue of immigration, promising to cut annual migrant numbers and freeze the country's refugee intake.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison Photo: AP
The pace of migration and the overcrowding of Australia's major cities is a sensitive issue among voters in a nation where 29 percent of the 25.3 million people were born overseas and where migration levels now outstrip the birthrate.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says net overseas migration in the year to September 2018 was 240,100.
The prime minister said if his government was re-elected on 18 May it would cap annual migrant numbers at 160,000 people per year for the next four years.
He also said the annual refugee intake would be frozen at 18,750 people.
The Labor opposition intends to increase the refugee intake to 27,000 by 2025.
Mr Morrison has invoked John Howard's refugee policies when he appeared alongside the former prime minister to pledge a re-elected Coalition government will crack down on who comes to Australia.
Scott Morrison, left, greets former prime minister John Howard at an election rally in Sydney. Photo: ABC
For the first time during this election, Australia's second longest-serving prime minister, Mr Howard, joined Mr Morrison on the campaign trail as he addressed Liberal Party faithful in Sydney.
Mr Morrison's pledge to freeze the number of humanitarian arrivals for the next term of government comes after the Coalition's promise last month to drop the permanent migration level from 190,000 each year to a cap of 160,000.
"We've got our borders and the Budget under control," Mr Morrison told a crowd of Liberal Party figures, including newly re-elected NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
During his 2001 election campaign launch speech, Mr Howard famously declared: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."
Refugees, migrants to be encouraged to settle in the regions
As well as freezing Australia's annual humanitarian intake, Mr Morrison today announced the makeup of the programme for the first time. Under the policy there will be an overall target of 60 per cent of the offshore component for women, up from 50.8 per cent in 2017-18.
The government will also push to increase the number of refugees and humanitarian entrants being settled in regional Australia from a target of 30 per cent to 40 per cent in 2019-20, but insist new arrivals will only go to areas where there is strong community support.
While appearing alongside Mr Howard, the prime minister also took aim at Labor's immigration policies, challenging Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to say who he would allow to come to Australia.
"We've been upfront with Australia, we're reducing the cap on our migration intake and capping the numbers of people we let in under our humanitarian programme that's one of the most generous in the world," Mr Morrison said.
"We're telling people where we'll be taking migrants from, who they will be, the skills we want them to have and working with regions to settle people in towns that want and need more workers, skills and students."
- ABC
