Former Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil lamented last year that Australia’s migration system encouraged too many temporary residents, creating “huge problems” and holding the country back.
“Today, really for the first time in our modern history, our uncapped, unplanned temporary program is the centrepiece and driver of our migration system. This simple fact is the source of huge problems”, she said.
“In 2007, we had about one million temporary migrants in Australia, excluding visitor and transit visas. Today that number is 1.9 million”.
