According to the plan, immigrants who emigrate to remote areas must remain in the designated area, otherwise the visa will be revoked from the. (SBS picture)

Under the federal government`s new population plan, immigrants to remote areas must remain in designated areas, or their visas will be revoked and may be repatriated, according to SBS.

The federal government announced last week that it would allocate A $19.4 million to a new plan to address congestion. According to the plan, immigrants who wish to settle in remote areas will be given priority in obtaining visas. However, if they move out of the area before they are granted permanent residence, their visas will be revoked.

David Coleman, the immigration minister, said in Canberra last week in Canberra that the "The relevant visa is applicable to local work (people), so you can`t work elsewhere. The visa is in fact relevant to this particular area."

For immigrants who leave remote areas early, Gao said that "they no longer have visas and will have to find other visas." "frankly, they are unlikely to get another visa, either. If they do so, there will be no permanent right of abode. "

Gao added that the plan would encourage migrants to travel to areas with chronic labour shortages.

但工党影子移民部长纽曼（Shayne Neumann）则认为是联邦政府造成边远地区用工短缺。

In an interview with the SBS, he said: ""You (the government) should provide incentives to people who migrate to the region, a matter that we will focus on _ to ensure that people migrate to these areas and build the community."

Newman pointed to the administration`s current problems, saying it was largely through non-processing of visas to ensure that people went to remote areas. "We now have 197000 bridge visas, an increase of 38000 over the past 12 months. If we review these visas, we can imagine that there will be more people in the remote communities. "

但政府的关注点明显不再审批过桥签。高民早前透露，政府正在考虑投入更多资源来审理边远地区签证。“这意味着你如果申请边远地区签证，（审理）时间将缩短，是鼓励人们前往边远地区的利好消息。”

随着政府更多关注移民定居边远地区事宜，高民称，移民接收量也会减少。联邦政府正在与多个有用工需求的边远地区讨论《指定地区移民协议》（Designated Area Migration Agreements，简称DAMA）。目前，联邦政府已与北领地签署了DAMA协议，向有关签证持有人提供可转永居的途径。维州的大南岸（Great South Coast）也已宣布与政府达成DAMA协议。昆州凯恩斯和西澳奥拉纳（Orana）的有关协议也在讨论中。

纽曼则表示，如果工党下届胜选，将采取“最佳建议”来制定移民配额上限。“我没有看到任何证据证实（削减移民）是合理的，自由党也未向我们提供任何相关证据。”