Now One Nation is running the same play — campaigning to cut immigration by over 570,000, capped at 130,000. The actual data: net migration was 306,000 in 2024-25, already falling for the second consecutive year — and that figure includes temporary students and workers who leave. The permanent intake was 185,000 — mostly skilled workers already here, already contributing. The biggest driver of that headline number? International students — 157,000 people who pay upfront and leave after graduating. They contributed $53.6 billion to Australia’s economy in 2024-25. Our fourth largest export after iron ore, gas, and coal. 31.5% of Australians were born overseas. 48% have at least one parent born overseas. Immigration is not a threat to Australia. It IS Australia — with one critical exception. Aboriginal people are the only Indigenous Australians. Everyone else arrived from somewhere else. And One Nation has consistently opposed Aboriginal people too — native title, the Voice, the NIAA. Their hostility to black and brown people doesn’t begin and end with immigration. It never has. So what is One Nation’s actual plan? They vote against housing affordability measures and have no plan to increase supply or fix planning laws. Migration is a small piece of the housing puzzle. The crisis is decades of underbuilding. One Nation has no answer for that. Just a scapegoat.
