The story below on cutting immigrants is from John Kehoe, Economics Editor of the Australian Financial Review. I’m for cutting the immigrant numbers because it will make it easier for people to get work and wages will rise (a little) and more properties will come up for rent. Business and the SA government have been running a massive Ponzi scheme on cheap immigration labour for far too long.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation will slash foreign temporary visa holders by more than 750,000 over three years by targeting international students and families of skilled migrants, tapping into growing voter dissent over housing shortages and stretched public services.
The One Nation immigration policy addresses the blowout in temporary visa holders to three million living in Australia, up from a bit over two million when the Albanese government took office in 2022.
Under the plan net overseas migration would temporarily turn negative over the three years before settling at an annual target of 130,000, compared to the current level of 300,000 and the government’s forecasts of 245,000 this year and 225,000 thereafter.
By releasing her plan now Hanson increases pressure on both Labor and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, who has yet to detail how the Coalition will cut net overseas migration to its nominated 170,000.
Hanson, who is soaring in voter polling, said Australians had had enough of mass migration.
“The Labor-Liberal political cartel has sacrificed Australian living standards to serve vested interests demanding continued mass migration,” she said.
“Vested interests and elite economists will shriek at the prospect of these cuts. But Canada has shown you can cut migrant numbers, take pressure off rents and still grow the economy.”
Under One Nation, temporary skilled worker visas will remain demand-driven by employers and no new cap introduced, but family members in future will no longer be granted secondary visas – reducing the skilled program from about 263,000 to 160,000 by year three.
International student visas will be capped at 100,000 a year and the cuts will largely target foreigners on lower-quality courses often used as a pathway to stay in Australia indefinitely.
But to lure talented people who can make a strong economic contribution to Australia, a new uncapped visa for high-value postgraduate study will be introduced, including PhDs and select science, technology, engineering and maths degrees, for an estimated 15,000 foreigners and their dependents.
An estimated 80,000 people overstaying their visas will be given three months to leave. If they don’t voluntarily depart, they will face immigration enforcement and a lifetime ban on returning to Australia.
Hanson’s immigration announcement is expected to send a shudder through the business community and higher education sector, which have warned swinging cuts to migration will hurt the economy.
Last month, One Nation edged back ahead of Labor on the primary vote in what is the fourth lead change between the two parties in as many months, indicating support for Hanson’s party has become entrenched at record levels.
Like One Nation’s proposal, the Albanese government’s upcoming migration policy is expected to focus heavily on curbing Australia’s record 3 million temporary visa holders.
“At the moment I think there’s a fair bit of evidence to say that people are rorting the system,” Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Sunday.
“People come in under one visa, they stay in this country, they continue to work in this country, but when one visa runs out, they go for another one and then another one and then another one and then another one.”
Centre-left Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has imposed caps on foreign students and tightened access to worker visas, causing the size of the overall population to temporarily shrink slightly.
Slower population growth dragged Canada into a technical recession – two quarters of negative economic growth – in mid-2026, which Carney described as “short-term pain” to build a more sustainable economic foundation.
But per-person real GDP – a measure of living standards – turned positive after previously declining for two years.
Asking rents declined for 18 consecutive months by between 4 per cent and 6 per cent in major cities such as Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.
“A larger economy on paper means nothing if Australians are poorer per person and cannot afford a home, find a hospital bed or get ahead,” Hanson said.
Real (inflation-adjusted) household disposable income per person – income leftover for consumption after taxes, mortgage payments and inflation – is about 5 per cent below its 2021 peak, one of the sharpest declines in the developed world.
One Nation said more than half of the 140,824 temporary skilled visas granted in 2025-26 were to family members and dependants of skilled migrants. Only 69,335 were the primary skilled workers.
One Nation will maintain the existing seasonal worker programs, such as the working holidaymaker program and the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme to hire workers from Pacific island countries and Timor-Leste to fill workforce shortages.
The temporary migrant population, currently at 3 million, will be cut to around 2017 levels of 2.1 million to 2.2 million, while the international student population will fall to around 2015 levels.