Scott Morrison is set to slash Australia’s immigration intake by 30,000 people a year
- Immigration cap of 160,000 people per year is expected to be introduced
- Mr Morrison said there was a ‘tribalism’ distorting the discussion of immigration
- Prime Minister said debate about migrant numbers wasn’t related to their value
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is preparing to slash Australia’s immigration intake.
A cap of 160,000 people per year is expected to be introduced, setting an official limit for the first time and dropping the average annual intake from 190,000.
The government’s Expenditure Review Committee has approved the Coalition’s broader population policies, The Australian reported.
Mr Morrison has also defended reviving the population debate so soon after the Christchurch terror attacks, where the alleged gunman is accused of harbouring hate against Muslim immigrants.
The prime minister said discussions about population should not be ‘hijacked’ by other debates on race or tolerance.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) is preparing to slash Australia’s immigration intake
Mr Morrison said he did not agree with people calling for less migration because of fears about immigrants causing terrorist attacks.
‘This debate about population growth and migration has nothing to do with those other issues that have been the subject of recent focus.’
The prime minister said discussions about population should not be ‘hijacked’ by other debates on race or tolerance.
‘We’ve seen what happens when these important practical debates are hijacked by these other extremist views, which occur from both the right and from the left,’ he said.
‘I’m determined to not see the serious population growth management issues taken off course, to be hijacked by those who want to push other agendas.
‘I have no purchase in those agendas, I have no truck with those agendas, and I denounce them absolutely.’
‘The worst example being the despicable appropriation of concerns about immigration as a justification for a terrorist atrocity,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
However, he also said calling for limits on immigration levels did not make someone a racist.
‘Such views have rightly been denounced. But equally, so too must the imputation that the motivation for supporting moderated immigration levels is racial hatred,’ he said.
Mr Morrison said debate about the number of migrants moving to Australia each year was not related to the value of immigration to the country.
‘Just because Australians are frustrated about traffic jams and population pressures encroaching on their quality of life, especially in this city, does not mean they are anti-migrant or racist,’ he said.
A regional settlement policy – which will require people in the general skilled migrant scheme to live in cities other than Sydney and Melbourne for at least five years – has also been approved by cabinet.
Labor frontbencher Mark Butler said the policy appeared to be the status quo.
‘If Scott Morrison has some detail he wants to show to us or the Australian community, obviously we’d be willing to look at it,’ he told ABC Radio National.
The government has also been hinting at spreading migrants across the states and territories to ease pressure on infrastructure, without outlining any concrete details about how this would work.
Its policies are expected to centre on forcing skilled migrants to live for at least five years in cities other than Sydney or Melbourne, and enticing university students into regional towns.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale questioned the timing of the debate, which has re-emerged shortly after 50 people were murdered in New Zealand mosques last week.
‘Three days after a massacre the prime minister decides to land this into the national conversation,’ he told ABC News Breakfast.
Mr Morrison said there was a ‘tribalism’ distorting the discussion of issues such as immigration. Pictured: Office workers walk to work in the Sydney CBD