Australia’s Coalition opposition, led by Angus Taylor, outlines a plan to reduce immigration in a budget reply speech on Thursday night. The proposal would link Australia’s temporary immigration intake to the number of new homes completed across the country, using housing completion figures as a “hard ceiling” for overseas arrivals. Taylor argues that migration has been occurring at a faster pace than housing supply, and says the approach is intended to better align population growth with housing availability.
The Coalition also pairs the migration policy with measures aimed at increasing construction capacity and reducing costs. It promises a new $5bn housing infrastructure fund and proposes weakening the national construction code to speed up building and lower expenses. In addition, Taylor’s broader budget-reply platform includes promises to index tax brackets to inflation and to invest resource windfalls into a fund.
Across the reports, the central common element is the stated intention to use housing completion data to constrain temporary immigration numbers, alongside housing and construction policy changes intended to accelerate new home delivery.
