Home affairs minister Darden (Peter Dutton) first axed his permanent immigration visa and now has evidence that he is cracking down on temporary immigration workers.
Data released over the weekend showed that 147339 temporary workers had left Australia on June 30 on visas to replace the "457" or new TSS (temporary skills shortage) visas. That`s down 9% from 161413 the year before and 14% from 170585 in 2016.
The cut in temporary work visas came after Australia issued only 162417 permanent immigration visas in the last fiscal year, compared with a "ceiling" of 19.19 million permanent visas once considered a "target".
Temporary immigrant workers have been the political focus of Labour and the Unionparty, not to mention Han Shan (Pauline Hanson), who has been campaigning for big cuts in all categories of visas.
Henry Scherrell (Henry Sherrell), a fellow at the Library of Congress, one of a handful of people with in-depth knowledge of demographics and immigration statistics, stressed how fast temporary skilled immigration visas are declining. Especially those who apply from abroad.
The number of visas granted to people outside Australia has more than halved since 2011-12.
But while the controversial TSS visa has been cut, other visa categories continue to grow, with the largest increase in cross-bridge visas. The number of visas issued on June 30 was 176216, up from 137420 a year earlier.
The increase may reflect a slowdown in the processing of permanent visas by Darden`s department, especially for spouses belonging to the "family reunion" category.
Student visas continued to rise by 10 percent to 486934 and temporary residents (others) by 20450 to 109730.
With visitors` visas and New Zealanders` 7804 "special category" visas increasing-673198 on June 30-Australian visa holders rose 5.5 percent to 2.05 million.
Visa holders must stay in Australia for at least a year before they count as part of Australia`s new population.
With more than 25 million people in Australia last week, population growth is still in the political spotlight.
Government is reportedly considering measures to bring migrants to towns and rural areas, rather than Sydney and Melbourne.
The problem is whether it`s a chicken egg or egg chicken problem, because most migrants go to the two largest cities because jobs are there.
The latest detailed ABS labor force data show that the unemployment rate in Greater Sydney was 4.1 percent, the lowest in more than four decades, while the national unemployment rate was 5.4 percent.
The existence of jobs attracts skilled migrants, who in turn create further jobs.
