The federal Coalition has named the COVID visa program and the foreign student intake as two urgent areas for cuts to ease pressure on housing.
Australia should immediately abolish a visa program that has swollen to include 128,000 workers since last year, according to new calls for measures to scale back net migration and ease pressure on housing.
In a forecast that raises new questions about the size of the intake, Oliver estimated that net migration would have to fall to about 200,000 people a year to line up with the capacity of the nation’s building industry and future housing supply. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is expected to deliver the migration strategy within a fortnight, after she signalled last week a tougher approach to selecting the best migrants for Australia, such as skilled workers.“It’s important to note that the overall effect of these changes will not be to increase migration in Australia,” she said. “In fact, the effect of the changing will be to reduce the size of the system a bit.
The Treasury estimate for net migration in the year to June 2023 was 180,000 in the March 2022 budget, but the forecast rose to 400,000 in the May 2023 budget.While the government has said it will stop taking new applications for the COVID visa from next February, Tehan said the program – known as the sub-class 408 visa – should end immediately.“Before the last election, there had been 26,810 of these visas issued – and now there are 128,796.
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