Opposition party says it will cut Australian immigration
July 26 2010 by Liam Clifford
Australia immigration is a key election issue
Tony Abbott, the leader of the opposition party in Australia, has pledged that his government would lower Australian immigration numbers to 170,000 if he won the next election.
He said that the annual immigration limit currently stands
at 300,000 and, therefore, his plans would see the number of foreigners able to
move to Australia each year reduced by 130,000.
Critics of Abbott’s
plans, however, claim that Australian immigration numbers are already far lower
than 300,000. Tony Burke, the Sustainable Population Minister, said Abbott’s
announcement was tantamount to a 'political trick'. He explained that
immigration this year has already fallen to around 230,000 and was on track to
reduce to 170,000 by June 2011.
He added that the plans would also
involve thousands of jobs being lost as they involve cutting the number of
student visas, which would result in the loss of teaching jobs and jobs within
educational institutions that rely on foreign cash.
The Australian
Demographic and Social Research Institute claims that much of the employment
growth over the coming years is expected to be created through Australian immigration, and
that this will suffer if drastic cuts should go ahead.
See the latest Immigration News
