Set immigration policy in context of population

August 14, 2026

Abul Rizvi highlights certain sectors within immigration that he claims are hard to cut, including: 400,000 people on bridging visas; 120,000 partner applications; 130,000 people in the asylum system; 270,000 people on temporary graduate visas; 260,000 people on skilled temporary visas; 225,000 people on working holiday maker visas. Those on bridging visas and in the asylum system may well be facing hardship, so we need to accelerate processing their cases. Partner applications are a concern (how do you refuse?) and may just need to be counted as part of the skilled program. The 270,000 on the temporary graduate visas and 260,000 on temporary skilled visas can go home when their visas expire, likewise those on working holiday visas. Temporary means temporary. They have no right to permanent residency unless they can prove they are eligible under the Refugee Convention. We limit further temporary migration and cap permanent migration. Then we might get our population growth down to a level whereby we do not grow beyond 30 million people. That’s the number of people we can feed in drought years, and there are a lot more droughts on the horizon, starting this spring and summer with a strong El Nino forecast.