Arabic version: جويس يدافع عن خطة «أمة واحدة» للهجرة السلبية

According to ABC News, One Nation treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce has defended the party’s plan to push net migration into negative territory for three years, despite warnings from business, universities and economists about its potential economic effects. He said voter concerns about migration had to be respected.

One Nation proposes heavily restricting international student visas and preventing skilled workers from bringing family members to Australia. Its policy would make net migration negative, meaning more people would leave than arrive, before an ongoing annual cap of 130,000 places took effect. Joyce said the proposal would not affect demand-driven programs such as the Pacific worker program or skilled-worker visas themselves.

Speaking on ABC National Forum, Joyce said he had “no concern about following the will of the Australian people” and argued that voters were tired of public policy being determined by economists. He said he was not worried by possible conclusions from the Parliamentary Budget Office or other bodies because “they’re not elected, I am”.

Political commentator George Megalogenis said no Australian government had purposefully caused a net outflow of migrants. He said migration had been negative four times in Australia’s history: during the depressions of the 1890s and 1930s, and while soldiers were deployed in the first and second world wars. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Andrew McKellar warned that arbitrary migration targets requiring broad cuts could cause long-term economic damage.

Labor and the Coalition have also said they want to reduce migration, but neither has detailed a final policy. The federal government is targeting net migration of 225,000 a year by 2028, compared with a current rate of about 300,000. The Coalition has flagged linking migration settings to housing construction, while frontbencher Andrew Hastie said cuts would involve “trade offs”.