Libs clash over deep migration cuts ahead of policy reveal
A severe clampdown on foreigners won’t fix the housing crisis, says Liberal moderate powerbroker Andrew Bragg, rejecting calls for savage cuts to net overseas migration.
Liberal moderate powerbroker Andrew Bragg has rejected calls inside the Coalition for savage cuts to net overseas migration, arguing that a severe clampdown on foreigners entering the country would not fix the housing crisis nor resolve crippling trades worker shortages.
Ahead of Sussan Ley releasing the Coalition’s migration policy “principles and directions” before Christmas, senior Liberal MPs have reached out to supporters seeking views on what the conservative parties should focus on.
In an email sent to Liberal members and business stakeholders on Tuesday night, Senator Bragg invoked Australia’s longest-serving prime minister Robert Menzies in defending the merits of migration while acknowledging pressures on the housing market.
The opposition housing, productivity and deregulation spokesman said Australia had been a migration nation since 1788 and that “being open to new migrants and new ideas has been the Australian way”.
“Maintaining public support for a migration program is important for our economy, and for our society,” Senator Bragg wrote.
The Liberal frontbencher outlined a four-point plan to combat the dual housing and migration crises, headlined by recognising “that cutting migration will not fix the housing crisis – but reducing it will help reduce demand and should be considered”.
Senator Bragg also wants to “bring in already skilled and experienced foreign tradies to meet immediate needs, and support more Australians undertaking building apprenticeships as the longer-term solution”. He also called for further scrutiny of “Labor’s failure to build and their $60bn in wasteful spending on housing (and) focus on building houses and other dwellings with supply side policies”.
The Australian last month revealed the Opposition Leader would release immigration policy principles and directions rather than a fixed net migration number before Christmas because it was impossible to predict economic and workforce conditions more than two years before the 2028 election. A fixed number will be set closer to the next election.
It is understood the Coalition, which is developing a policy focused on families, will release a separate skills package next year.
Migration policy pillars being finalised by Ms Ley, home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam and immigration spokesman Paul Scarr focus on cracking down on specific visa classes, targeting foreign students gaming the system, overhauling the skilled occupation list and restoring a stronger focus on Australian values and language tests for migrants.
In his email to members, Senator Bragg said Australians were rightly “complaining about shortfalls on housing and on infrastructure needed to support a larger population … I see it and I understand it”.
“Since this Labor government came to office, we have seen over one million enter Australia,” he wrote. “This is around 4 per cent of the population of 27,000,000. A decade ago, it was half. From 2012-15, Australia saw 500,000 people arrive. So the last three years has delivered a surge.
“Sadly, this surge hasn’t imported the skills needed to fix labour shortfalls in home building. Last year just 4000 tradies came in when we need around 80,000 tradies to fix the building skill shortfall.”
With the construction sector screaming out for carpenters, riggers, structural steel erectors, civil technicians and crane, lift and earth moving operators, Senator Bragg said “migration for skilled and qualified construction workers and tradies should be an option – especially in the short term, to address immediate housing needs across Australia”.
“The answer, in the long run, is to train and deploy more Australians to this critical sector. And to make the sector more attractive to workers so they can stay, develop their skills, and prosper.
“The CFMEU has very close links to this Labor government, and it is clear they do not want foreign tradies who will not join their corrupt union.”
Under threat from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Nationals MPs are concerned about divisions in the Liberal Party over going hard on migration.
Some Liberal and Nationals MPs want at least to match Peter Dutton’s pledge to cut the annual net migrant intake, which hit 315,900 in the year to March, by at least 100,000. Treasury has forecast the NOM will fall to 260,000 in 2025-26 and 225,000 annually over the following three years.
In an email to supporters, conservative Liberal MP Andrew Hastie said that after dumping a commitment to a net zero emissions target, “we’re working on immigration and family policy … everything must be on the table policy-wise, because our future is on the line”.
“Immigration is out of control,” Mr Hastie wrote. “It’s bidding up housing prices and rents, and destroying our fragile social cohesion. Families have never had such a rotten deal. Buying a home feels impossible.
“The economy isn’t working for regular Australians. Both parents are forced into work to pay the bills. The government is pushing kids into institutionalised childcare. Everyone is tired and stressed. The Australian dream is fading for many.”
Senator Bragg told Liberal members that while “many argue the salvation for Australian housing would be to cut migration … we should look to the Menzies era for solutions”.
Amid a post-war migration explosion, Mr Menzies said in 1951 “the housing problem is severe, but the solution is not to halt immigration”.
“We cannot afford to suspend immigration because of a shortage of houses. If we do that, we shall never have the people we need, and never have the houses either,” Mr Menzies said, according to Senator Bragg’s e-mail.
Senator Bragg said “increased demand from Labor’s reckless migration program has been damaging, but it is not the major driver”.
“The major driver of the housing crisis is a collapse in housing supply,” he wrote. “We have gone from 220,000 new dwellings in 2018 to just 160,000 last year. Labor will miss their own housing target by as many as 80,000 houses this year.
“We don’t have enough homes. The OECD average is nearly 500 houses per 1000 people, but Australia has around 400 houses per 1000 people.”
Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh, the daughter of an Austrian immigrant, on Monday distributed a survey across her electorate of Lindsay asking for views on migration.
“In western Sydney we are feeling the pressure of high migration when it comes to infrastructure, health, housing, and through my discussions with you on the ground, this is a big problem,” Ms McIntosh wrote to Liberal supporters.
“We now face heavy population pressures in our community and across Australia.
“More than 1500 of you have let me know your thoughts on many topics in my most recent community survey. On immigration, 78 per cent of you think immigration is too high, with only 3 per cent stating the levels are too low, and 19 per cent saying the levels are about right.”
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