No ‘enforcement’ watch on migrants in regions, says Morrison

Scott Morrison has assured migrants who live in regional Australia they will not be watched by police.

Scott Morrison in Canberra yesterday. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has assured migrants who elect to live in ­regional Australia in order to obtain permanent residency that they will not be watched by police, as the reduced annual migration cap of 160,000 splits the business sector.

The Liberal NSW and South Australian governments yesterday backed the “pause” on the migration intake, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian saying it would give her time to catch up on necessary infrastructure.

The Coalition announced 23,000 places would be set aside under two new visa classes for skilled workers to live and work outside Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast for three years to access permanent residence.

In 2017-18, the states and territories nominated 8500 people under the migration intake to live in their regional cities and towns but that will be increased to 14,000 next financial year.

“In South Australia, we know that growing our population is integral to creating more local jobs and a thriving economy, particularly in our regional areas,” South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said.

“We can achieve growth by stopping the brain drain of our young people interstate, placing a focus on attracting more inter­national students and through targeted skills ­migration.”

The Prime Minister said it would be up to migrants to ­comply with the new visa classes and show they had been living in the regions for three years before they could apply for permanent residency.

“There’s a strong self-assessment process to this because ­people need to demonstrate where they have been through people’s own records,” he said, noting the government would look at addresses, power bills, employment records and tax file numbers. The suggestion of some sort of a ‘walking the beat enforcement arrangement’ is obviously ridiculous and that’s certainly not what we have in mind. It’s a far more … practical and cost-effective way of just working co-operatively.”

The revised annual intake would have no fiscal impact on the budget, Mr Morrison said.

The Australian Industry Group said the government’s plan to formally drop the migration cap from 190,000 to 160,000 meant Australia would “potentially miss out on a share of the ­future economic gains the program would deliver”.

“Dropping the migrant intake ‘ceiling’ by 30,000 places leaves open the opportunity for even much deeper cuts to migration levels and the potential loss of further economic benefits,” chief executive Innes Willox said.

Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott acknow­ledged Australians in major cities were frustrated by congestion but said those in the regions needed more people, skills, jobs and ­investment.