One Nation is targeting international students and the families of skilled migrants in its proposal to cut 750,000 temporary visa holders in Australia over three years. The move would return temporary visa numbers back to 2017 levels. Hanson says net migration under the plan would be “net-negative” for the first three years, and then sit at 130,000 – however who knows what that actually means because when One Nation recently announced this, none of its MPs seemed to be able to define what net migration was.
For those playing at home, net migration measures people coming into or leaving the country for a period of at least 12 months over 16 months and thus excludes tourists. Much of the confusion was around whether backpackers and people on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme would count under the Nom. About 10% of the temporary visas to be cut would include people living in Australia who don’t have a visa and have exhausted all options to stay.
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