Tony Abbott caught out on sneaky political trick on immigration<br />
Chris Evans,Tony Burke posted Sunday, 25 July 2010<br />
<br />
Tony Abbott’s immigration “announcement” today is nothing more than a sneaky political trick.<br />
<br />
All Mr Abbott has done is add up the current projected cuts in net overseas migration (NOM) arising from existing Government policy and call it his policy.<br />
<br />
Phoney Tony has been caught out plagiarising the existing migration projections and trying to trick the Australian people into believing it is a new policy.<br />
<br />
Mr Abbott has been humiliated by the facts.<br />
<br />
Only last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed that NOM was on track to drop to 277,700 for the year ended 31 December 2009.<br />
<br />
Latest immigration statistics confirm that Australia's NOM level is on track to drop to between 230,000 and 250,000 people by the end of the 2009-10 financial year.<br />
<br />
Our reforms have brought under control the number of temporary visa holders.<br />
<br />
Applications lodged for 457 visas in May 2010 are 32 percent lower than in July 2009.<br />
<br />
Student visa numbers have dropped from 320,000 in 2008-09 to around 270,000 in 2009-2010.<br />
<br />
BIS Shrapnel has forecast that the Net Overseas Migration in 2010-11 will be 175,000 people and 145,000 people in 2011-12.<br />
<br />
The BIS Shrapnel forecasts indicate that NOM levels will already be lower than what Mr Abbott claims he will cut them to (170,000).<br />
<br />
The Gillard Labor Government’s reforms to our temporary skilled and student programs – closing the massive loopholes opened by the former Coalition Government – have already been steadily driving down the NOM.<br />
<br />
Labor’s reforms mean that the skilled migration program is now delivering the skills the Australian economy needs and ensuring skilled migrants do not compete with Australians in areas of high unemployment.<br />
<br />
Mr Abbott’s latest trick is even more desperate than his WorkChoices trick that failed at the start of the campaign.<br />
<br />
Just 6 months ago he was for a big Australia.<br />
<br />
In January Mr Abbott said “there’s no reason to think that Australia has a fixed carrying capacity ...My instinct is to extend [it] to as many people as possible”<br />
<br />
In April he said the Productivity Commission would set his immigration levels, now in the middle of the campaign he simply adds up the current projected cuts – resulting from the Government’s reforms – and calls them his policy.<br />
<br />
We’re getting our population strategy right by developing Australia’s first ever national sustainable population strategy.<br />
<br />
Contrast that with Mr Abbott who is just trying to trick the Australian people on the day of the leader’s debate.