As Australia’s federal election approaches, the Coalition has pledged to cut the country’s permanent immigration intake by 25% if elected and is considering reducing the number of international students studying at universities in major cities. announced the party leader.
“We don’t want Australians wondering what the Coalition means, so today we’re outlining key priorities to get Australia back on track,” Peter Dutton said on 12 January. He spoke in the Chisholm constituency in Victoria.
Mr Dutton said “rebalancing” Australia’s immigration program and “resolving the housing crisis” were priorities for his coalition government.
“Labour has opened the immigration floodgates. A record 1 million migrants arrived in Labour’s first two years, 70% more than in any of the previous two years. Housing, Infrastructure , services are under pressure, with just 350,000 homes built in the same period, and demand far outstrips supply.
“The Coalition will take action: ban foreign investors and temporary residents from purchasing existing Australian homes for two years,” Mr Dutton said.
We are working with major metropolitan universities to place stricter restrictions on international students to reduce stress on the city’s rental market.
Peter Dutton, Union
He added: “We will reduce the permanent migration program by 25% over two years, from 185,000 to 140,000 places. 160,000 places. We will also work with major metropolitan universities to leverage these measures to reduce stress on the city’s rental market. then 5 We will release more than 100,000 homes a year.”
The 2023/24 Australian Overseas Migration Figure shows the number of student visa holders arriving in Australia has fallen by 25% from 278,000 in 2022/23 to 207,000 in 2023/24. It became clear. Despite the decline, international students remain the largest group of immigrants.
The figures show international students account for 39.5% of Australia’s net overseas migration, the lowest proportion since 2016/17 (excluding the pandemic slowdown in 2019/20).
Mr Dutton has previously joined forces with the Green Party to block the current Labor government’s plans to cap the number of international students under the ESOS Amendment Bill, which would see the number of international students capped at 250,000 in 2025. They believed that this was not enough to reduce migration.
The current education minister, Jason Clare, was shocked that Mr Dutton “went to bed” with the Greens to block the bill, when the party was strongly opposed to the bill for very different reasons.
After the bill failed to gain enough support to pass the House of Lords, the Minister for Education announced that a new We have chosen to implement the Visa Processing Directive, Ministerial Directive 111 (MD 111), on 19 December 2024.
MD 111 requires each authority to limit each provider’s student visas to 80% of the cap figure, also known as net overseas student starts, conveyed under the government’s blocked enrollment cap (also known as the national planning level). It will be a priority. , towards 2025.
When an institution reaches this point in the quota, it will be placed at the back of the queue, with preference given to universities that have not yet reached 80% of the limit.
