The Coalition has abandoned a key election promise to slash migration despite warnings that its crushing defeat was due to immigration policy, and will instead focus on wooing “multicultural communities”.
The new Opposition immigration spokesman, Queensland Liberal National Party Senator Paul Scarr, refused to recommit to former leader Peter Dutton’s pledge to cut net overseas migration to 160,000 – 100,000 lower than Labor’s target – despite calling it “considered and measured”.
Mr Scarr, who was appointed by Opposition leader Sussan Ley last week and regularly shares photos of himself pandering to immigrants, told The Australian in an interview that one of the Coalition’s goals was to “engage deeply and respectfully with all of our multicultural communities”.
“I have a firm view that many of the fundamental values of the Liberal Party resonate in many of our multicultural communities,” he said.
“But in order to achieve that outcome of connection with our multicultural communities, there needs to be a real focus, and I consider it a fundamental responsibility in terms of these portfolios, of engaging with those communities, spending time with the communities, and hearing their concerns.”
When asked about Mr Dutton’s net overseas migration target of 160,000, which the former opposition leader set in the dying stages of his failed campaign, Mr Scarr said “all aspects of the policy” needed to be considered, but signalled he would support an earlier promise to cut permanent migration by 25%.
“In my view, the policy was very considered, it was very measured. It responded to the legitimate concerns that were raised about the one million figure of overseas migration in that first two-year period of the Labor government,” he said.
“The policy which we took to the last election reflected the magnitude of that influx of people into the country.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese brought in about 1.5 million immigrants during his first three years in office, driving housing, rental and cost-of-living crises and pushing the foreign-born proportion of the population to the highest level since Federation.
During 2024 Mr Dutton repeatedly refused to commit to immigration cuts, instead promising to bring in more Indian migrants, bring back a “golden visa” for rich Chinese, and blocking Labor’s international student caps.
He eventually committed to a cap just 11% smaller than Labor’s, promised to reduce permanent migration by 25%, and finally committed to reducing net overseas migration by 100,000 people a year, which on current levels is still far above the historical average.
Mr Scarr said in his interview that Mr Dutton was “demonised very ruthlessly” as being anti-immigrant, which he insisted was not true, and “unfair”.
According to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the record-high levels of immigration under Labor has pushed the foreign-born population to 31.5%, up from 30.7% in 2023.
Between 2019 and 2024 the India-born resident population grew from 665,400 to 916,330, the China-born went from 661,460 to 700,120, those born in The Philippines increased from 294,160 to 394,380, and the Nepal-born population grew to 197,800 from 119,060.
The population born in the above four countries alone is now at 2.2 million, out of a total of 8.6 million born overseas, up from 6.5 million 10 years earlier.
Header image: Left, Sussan Ley, and right, Paul Scarr, pandering to Indians (Facebook).
