Politics

Dutton: Reduced number of migrants will have ‘positive effect’ on economy

Jul 15, 2018

Dutton imposed tougher vetting laws. Source: Getty.

On Friday it was revealed that the number of people making the move to Australia has been slashed by more than 10 per cent, as permanent migration figures have reached their lowest point for more than a decade.

Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton claimed that the drop in migration was down to tougher vetting laws, and has now heralded the findings as “positive” for Australia both economically and socially.

He told Sky News: “It’s a positive one because if we’re bringing more productive people in then there’s more economic benefit for our country and there’s also greater societal benefit as well because if people are working if people are coming to our country.

“We’re not talking about humanitarian program here. We’re talking about people who are coming here under the skilled program and under the family settlement, predominately the partner visa stream.

“These are people who are claiming to be in a relationship, we’re finding cases where they’re not legitimate relationships, we’re finding cases where people don’t have qualifications that they have claimed, they had all the work experience they claimed they had.”

.@PeterDutton_MP: Be as sure as night follows day, if @billshortenmp wins the next election, the boats would restart.

MORE: https://t.co/k2HFQ3uYgN #SpeersonSunday pic.twitter.com/dZO8Pv5VYv

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 14, 2018

According to figures supplied to Starts at 60, the vetting measures enforced by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton seem to have resulted in a reduction of around 21,000 over the past year.

A total of 162,417 people entered the country under the migration program during the last 12 months, which is down from 183,608 in 2016/17 and 189,770 the year before. The cut is the biggest single-year reduction in more than a decade, after numbers soared to 190,000 under the Rudd and Gillard governments.

The report also shows that, under Dutton’s rule, the figures are the lowest they’ve been since 2007, with the drop being attributed to a clampdown on fraudulent visa claims and a 46.2 per cent rise in the number of rejected visas under the government’s new integrity measures.

Dutton spoke out following a warning from Treasurer Scott Morrison, who claimed that reducing the intake of migrants could see as much as $5 billion wiped from the Federal budget in coming years.

Speaking to 3AW in February, he said: “I can understand why people would be superficially attracted to this idea that if you lower the level of permanent immigration that that will have that impact, but let’s just think it through.

“If you take this proposal, this is what it means. You’d have to drop [the intake] by 80,000. The hit to the budget of that would be about $4 billion to $5 billion over the next four years.”

Dutton also took a swipe at the Labor party, in particular leader Bill Shorten, claiming that they, if elected, would allow more migrants into the country than his own party.

He told Sky News: “At the next election Bill Shorten will be promising to migrate more people to Australian than what this government is prepared to do.”