Pauline Hanson has vowed no business will be deprived of skilled workers under a One Nation government despite the party’s promise to temporarily turn migration negative.

One Nation would slash 750,000 migrant places over three years, then impose a cap on the population growth due to migration, called net overseas migration (NOM), of 130,000 a year.

That target risked triggering a “deep recession”, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) chief executive Andrew McKellar said when the policy was announced in September.

But a month later, Senator Hanson was keen to smooth things over with that peak body after businesses’ pulses had quickened over foreign skilled labour drying up.

“We are not going to hold back any business that requires skilled labour to come into the country – we’re not attacking that,” the One Nation leader told ACCI’s business leaders’ summit held in Canberra on Tuesday.

The anti-immigration party is alone in wanting to turn away skilled workers’ partners and dependants, who make up more than half of that visa category’s roughly 130,000-strong intake.

“No more Uber drivers, no more tax accountants and all this rest of it that we don’t need,” Senator Hanson said during Tuesday’s summit.

One Nation treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce, who was once a tax accountant, said the party in government could speed up skilled worker visa processing for businesses in need.

“If there is a demand, we’ll actually expedite that process,” he told the business leaders.

“But this superfluous idea that someone comes out and they bring seven family members … it’s just untenable.”

The former coalition deputy prime minister challenged Jim Chalmers, whose policies he described as “socialist”, ahead of a speech the treasurer is expected to deliver on Tuesday night.

“I’m happy to put myself up against, Jim Chalmers any day of the week … I’ll have a lot of fun,” he said.

Opening more training colleges in the regions to steer some young people away from university was also floated by Senator Hanson.

“I want to start the apprenticeships scheme again, I wanna start up TAFE colleges, agricultural colleges,” she said.

“A lot of these kids shouldn’t be in universities … taking up a debt that the taxpayer is responsible for.”

The Queensland Senator has labelled higher education institutions “visa factories” and pledged to bring foreign student places from 590,000 to 350,000, as well as almost completely eliminate graduate visas.

ACCI’s conference earlier heard targeting net overseas migration was “ridiculous”, from Nationals leader Matt Canavan.

The junior coalition partner slammed monomaniacally chasing the closely watched figure a week after the opposition headlined its own migration policy with a plan to temporarily cut NOM to 100,000 a year, and then 160,000 long-term.

“Net overseas migration is a ridiculous measure to target,” he told the corporate luminaries.

“There is interest in the NOM figure, and there is some measurable benefit of having a look at it, but it’s not what we were targeting at all.”