Dutton vows deeper international student cuts, after he blocked legislation

Peter Dutton has vowed to pursue deeper international student cuts than Labor in a bid to increase the housing supply, as experts raise concerns about the Coalition’s plan to slash migration.

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

Peter Dutton has vowed to pursue deeper international student cuts than Labor but it is not clear if his plans will be outlined before the election, as experts raise doubts about the Coalition’s ability to massively slash migration.

After the Coalition vowed to oppose Anthony Albanese’s legislation imposing a cap on foreign students, the Opposition Leader said Labor’s allocations were flawed because they were based on the 2023 figures and “baked in a benefit” for the elite Group of Eight universities.

Declaring that he wanted to ensure there was a supply of “housing for Australians”, Mr Dutton said he would set the net migration intake according to the economic conditions and state of the “mess we inherit from this government” if he wins the election.

“There will be deeper cuts because I want housing for Australians,” Mr Dutton said.

“I’ve been very clear about that. We’ve said that we will reduce the permanent program by 25 per cent, and we will do that because I want to create housing for Australians at the moment who can’t ­afford housing.”

But immigration expect Abul Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration, said the Coalition’s goal to slash net migration to 160,000 next financial year if elected was “absolutely impossible” unless there was a major increase in the unemployment rate.

“There is only one way it could be delivered, you would have to grind the labour market into the dirt,” he said.

“An unemployment rate of 7 per cent, will give you 160,000 net migration.”

Mr Rizvi said the Coalition’s goal to slash permanent migration to 140,000 permanent migrants would be “fundamentally illegal” because it would impact skilled visas and partner visa allocations, which are required by law to be granted on a demand-driven basis.

“(Skilled visas) would have to go down, and if they accommodated all the partner applications it would have to go down even more,” he said.

Labor’s plan to cap international students to 270,000 from January 1 has been widely criticised by higher education providers for damaging the economy, triggering job losses and damaging the reputation of the $40bn sector, which is the nation’s second-biggest export industry.

After the Coalition sided with the Greens and opposed the caps on Monday, Education Minister Jason Clare said the government would keep a controversial ministerial direction which favours visa applications from students attending low-risk providers such as the Go8 universities in place.

Mr Clare claimed Mr Dutton’s opposition to the plan was political, because the legislation allows a government to change the cap level at any time.

He said Mr Dutton had “blown up his entire credibility on immigration” after saying in his budget reply speech in May the Coalition would introduce student caps.

“It just blows my mind that the Liberal Party think it’s a good idea to get into bed with the Greens, of all parties, and vote to stop this legislation, to stop us putting a cap on international student migration,” Mr Clare said.

Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

While some Nationals MPs – whose regional seats will suffer more under Direction 107 – expressed some doubt about the decision to vote against the caps, Nationals Leader David Littleproud said he supported the decision, reasoning higher education providers in the bush were struggling under Labor’s caps too.

“We’ll be very clear before the election, when we release our immigration policy,” he said.

Economist Saul Eslake said cutting international student numbers would reduce demand for housing in the short term, but would ultimately reduce the supply of workers in sectors such as hospitality and retail.

“These cuts will also have adverse effects on supply, which could, in turn, offset some of the downward impact that cutting immigration might have on cost-of-living pressures.”

While it was not unusual for a government to cut net migration during periods of high unemployment to support workers in Australia, Mr Eslake said slashing immigration when the job market was strong was less common.