International
Australia to cut migration to fix housing crisis: minister
Australia will reduce migration by curbing "visa hopping", tightening rules on students and working holiday makers as well as cracking down on overstayers, its interior minister said Thursday, as the far-right surges in the polls.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the National Press Club in Canberra that immigration was "fundamentally a strength" for Australia, but accepted that housing pressures required changes.
He denied his ruling Labor party was tightening visa rules in response to the rise of One Nation, which has become one of the country's most popular parties this year with pledges to drastically slash migration. Business groups warned such cuts would cause economic damage.
"We need immigration to soften enough that housing has a chance to catch up," he said, while stressing the housing shortage was not caused by migrants.
Net overseas migration -- the net gain or loss to the population through movement to and from Australia -- reached a peak of 538,000 in 2022 after a surge in arrivals when borders re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Numbers fell to 292,100 in the year to March, data on Thursday showed.