‘It’s really hurting’: Multicultural leaders decry Coalition migration policy

The Coalition’s plan to tie migration to housing completions and bar non-citizens from welfare programs is a “shameful” choice that makes immigrants feel less safe and damages social cohesion, multicultural leaders say.

The long-awaited announcement of the opposition’s immigration policy came days after the Liberals lost the Farrer byelection to a resurgent One Nation. There, Pauline Hanson’s party campaigned extensively on slashing migration rates to less than half the current setting.

“It’s shameful that these politicians are targeting future Australians, people who are on valid visas that are paying taxes, giving back, and yet they are not being treated as human beings,” said Amar Singh, founder of the charity Turbans 4 Australia and winner of Australia’s 2023 Local Hero award.

“It’s really hurting the community’s sentiment and mental health, this constant battering about migration. Every migrant feels that pain. We always get pointed out for everything, but at the end of the day, Australia is built on migration.”

In his budget reply speech on Thursday night, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor announced that the Coalition, if elected, would link net overseas migration with the number of housing completions. Net overseas migration is the number of arrivals who stay for more than a year, including returning Australian citizens, minus the number of departures who leave for more than a year.

“This much I promise: the Coalition will deliver one of the biggest cuts to immigration in Australian history. Our immigration cut will complement our plan to lift immigration standards,” Taylor said.

He also stated a desire to “process and deport 70,000 overstayers”, along with a policy of barring non-citizens from accessing 17 social welfare programs, including the Aged Pension, JobSeeker and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Net overseas migration peaked at 555,800 in late 2023, following border closures during the COVID pandemic. The number has since fallen, though this financial year’s rate of 295,000 is 35,000 higher than forecast. Hanson has campaigned on a figure of 130,000 net migrants a year.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Friday that migration numbers had been too high in recent years and that settings were now being “tailored to the needs of the country”.

“They peaked under the immigration settings of the previous government, and since then, we’ve been taking action to be able to bring those numbers down to sustainable levels,” Burke said.

“The one permanent resident that Angus Taylor seems happy with is Pauline Hanson, who’s a permanent resident in his head.”

Singh joined Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir and human rights lawyer Khushaal Vyas in accusing Taylor of using his budget reply speech as a dog whistle to One Nation voters, and framing multicultural communities as scapegoats for the housing crisis.

“I’m not a defender of the Labor Party, but it shows how far down the ring [the Coalition] have gone that they have become the effective copy of One Nation,” Kheir said.

“The community sentiment is that we are sick to death of being the punching bag of all the ills of this country. All the ills of the world have, somehow, to do with migration,” he said.

Kheir said he was insulted that immigrants were being blamed for the housing crisis instead of successive governments that failed to act.

Vyas argued that migrants were willing to have a conversation about migration, with many espousing conservative views that might favour the Coalition or One Nation. However, he felt Taylor’s rhetoric was “causing harm to the social harmony Australia is known for”.

“This is a target on migrants’ backs: the reason things are so expensive, or we can’t afford housing, is because of migrants,” Vyas said.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume confirmed on Friday that the policy of barring non-citizens from social welfare programs would not apply to Medicare, and that it would not result in permanent residents who now live in Australia being stripped of their benefits.

“This is about future migrants … I think a lot of Australians would be surprised to know that some of these benefits, some very expensive and very generous benefits, are available to permanent residents now,” Hume told the ABC.

Jimmy Li, president of Victoria’s Chinese Community Council of Australia, said he found the move “particularly alarming”.

“Permanent residents make the same contributions to Australia as citizens. They work hard, they raise families, they pay the same rate of taxes. They make contributions to Australian society and communities, and they should be treated the same as citizens,” he said.

Li said that many permanent residents faced administrative hurdles in applying for citizenship, but this did not mean they didn’t see Australia as their home.

“To remove them from the welfare services will create division … Permanent residents are part of Australian society in every way. It’s not helpful in my view,” he said.

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