Opinion
Immigration is always a hot topic. My interest in immigration focuses on the unusually high number and ongoing lack of public consultation. It has therefore always been interesting to see that year after year,
Australian governments grossly understate the annual permanent migration intake.
The Labor Government announced that Australia’s annual Permanent Migration Program will remain at 185,000 permanent visas in 2025-26.
This widely stated number of 185,000 significantly understates the actual annual permanent migration intake, for two key reasons.
First, it does not count the Humanitarian Program, which involves annual permanent resettlement for refuges. This annual number is around 20,000 (soon to be 27,000). For some reason, this permanent category was hived off decades ago to be counted in another permanent category.
Second, it does not count New Zealanders, who have unlimited rights to permanent residency in Australia under the Trans-Tasman Agreement (TTA). The TTA has produced a post-2000 annual average of around 30,000 net migrants to Australia.
The Permanent Migration Program planning information on the Department of Home Affairs website also makes no mention of Labor’s new Pacific Engagement Visa program, which provides 3,000 further permanent visas per year. I can therefore only assume that those permanent visas are not counted in the Permanent Migration Program, but we’ll leave that aside for now.
Together, the Humanitarian Program and Trans-Tasman Agreement make up approximately 50,000 annual permanent migrants. This increases Australia’s annual permanent migrant intake by roughly 27 per cent, meaning the 185,000 limit jumps to around 235,000 per annum.
If these permanent visa categories are left out, what is the real number and what does this lack of transparency mean for Australia?
