Subjects: Migration Program
EO&E..............
BEN FORDHAM:
Australia's intake of migrants is at its lowest level in a decade with new figures revealing over 20,000 migrants have been cut from our annual intake. The Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton joins us now from Brisbane. Good morning to you Minister. What do you put this significant drop down to?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ben, the Government's had a real focus on making sure, not only that we've restored integrity to our borders, but also now to our permanent migration program. So looking more closely at the applications that are made, making sure that we're bringing the best migrants possible into our country.
BEN FORDHAM:
What kind of people are being rejected Minister?
PETER DUTTON:
Well people that are making fraudulent claims. So a lot of people we're concerned about that are providing false documentation, overstating their qualifications and in the end we want our migration program to work in our country's best interest.
BEN FORDHAM:
Give us a bit of context here about numbers and how far back we go until we see these kind of numbers that we're seeing today. Is it about 10 years or so since we've seen numbers as low as we're seeing today?
PETER DUTTON:
So these are the lowest numbers that we've seen since John Howard was Prime Minister.
Under Labor they had a target of 190,000 and it meant frankly in the end they were ticking and flicking applications.
I want to make sure that we scrutinise each application so that we're getting the best possible migrant; people who are going to work, not be on welfare, people who are going to integrate into our community. And we want to make sure – particularly say people coming through the spousal visa program – that they are legitimate relationships. And in the end, if we get it right then we end up with a much better migration intake.
BEN FORDHAM:
Is this a case of the Government recognising some of the concerns that people in the community have raised, whether it be congestion on roads or housing shortages or people not being able to access beds in hospitals? Is this the Government reflecting I suppose some of those concerns that people have been voicing for some time now?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes it is Ben and the Prime Minister and I have done a lot of thinking, a lot of talking about how we can not only listen to those concerns, but act on them.
And there's a lot of work that we're doing around ways in which we can try and provide incentive for people to – if they're new into our country – whether they can move out into regional areas where there's a big demand for a local workforce there, not pressure on roads and infrastructure as we might see in our capital cities.
So we've just really scrutinised these numbers. We believe we're getting the best and most skilled migrants in because they end up paying more tax, they end up working longer and that's a better outcome for our country.
BEN FORDHAM:
We still have a pretty generous approach to things though don't we? I mean, it's not like we've turned off the tap. Still plenty of people coming here because they want to live in the greatest country on earth.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah of course and we're still a destination for many people. There are 65 million people in the world who are displaced and our country’s built on migration. We've had wonderful people who have come to our country over a long period of time and we've got a lot to protect, a lot of values that those migrants believe in very strongly.
And ultimately – apart from our Indigenous population – all of us are from migrant stock so we want to make sure that we get the best people into our country so that we can protect our values.
But, as you say, we've been listening to concerns that Australians have had and I think people are seeing that reflected today.
BEN FORDHAM:
Minister, thanks for waking up with Today.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks. Pleasure Ben. See you mate.
