Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has admitted she made a “mistake” when she claimed the government’s migration program targeted people who are Labor-leaning.<\/p>\n
The former opposition frontbencher made the claims during an interview with ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, in which she specifically referenced migrants from India because “there’s been large numbers and we can see that reflected in the way the community votes for Labor”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“So if they’re [Labor] going to see a reflection that, ‘OK, these individuals are going to vote for us more, more so than other parts of the community’, well then of course they’re going to express the view that we’ll get those sorts of individuals into our communities.”<\/p>\n
But a short time later, Senator Price issued a statement describing her comments as a “mistake” made as part of a wide-ranging interview during which she “sought to highlight issues of uncontrolled mass migration and ruptures to social cohesion”.<\/p>\n
“Australia maintains a longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy. Suggestions otherwise are a mistake,” the statement read.<\/p>\n
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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has called for migration levels to be dropped. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n
The statement echoed Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s response to questions about the senator’s comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I have seen a clarification that makes it clear \u2026 which is that our immigration program is long-standing, bipartisan, and non-discriminatory,” she told ABC News.<\/p>\n
Before the clarification, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement that “Australia does not have a race-based migration system, nor should it”.<\/p>\n
“At every citizenship ceremony I go to, I love reading out the countries of origin and hearing the cheers from everyone about to make a pledge to our country,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s rare that anyone cheers more loudly than the Indian community. We are lucky that they have chosen us.”<\/p>\n
Ley explains migration comments<\/p>\n
Australia’s migration level was a hot topic of debate on Wednesday after the government announced its permanent migration target would not change from 185,000 in this financial year,<\/a> following nationwide anti-immigration rallies over the weekend.<\/p>\n The Coalition wants to see migration levels lowered, with Ms Ley warning on Wednesday morning that the current policy was heaping pressure “on every corner of the country \u2026 on infrastructure, on housing and our way of life”.<\/p>\n “This is not about the migrants themselves \u2026 We migrants, we came to Australia for a better life. It’s about getting the balance right,” she told Today.\u00a0<\/p>\n The opposition leader later expanded on her comments during an interview with the ABC, stating: “People talk to me about the commute from home to work, taking three times as long because the roads, the infrastructure, the parking, the housing in particular.”<\/p>\n She went on to clarify that the comment was “never about migrants”.<\/p>\n “I love our Australian migrants, and I am one myself … I am grateful every day for the opportunities of this country,” she said.<\/p>\n “It is about getting the balance between our infrastructure and migration program, and that is for the government to explain.”<\/p>\n The permanent migration program mostly gives visas to those who are already residing in the country, so it does not directly affect net migration, which takes in the inflow and outflow of temporary migrants such as international students.<\/p>\n Senator Price also weighed in on the need for lower migration levels, claiming that “what pro-Australians are wanting is to limit migration to a point that is healthy for our country”.<\/p>\n “We don’t have the capacity to be able to service Australians to the best of our ability. Our way of life is getting worse. We’re seeing more division,” she said.<\/p>\n Senator Price joined Ms Ley in condemnation of the Neo-Nazis who attended some of the nationwide protests, and in Melbourne attacked a First Nations protest camp<\/a>, but added that there were extremists on both sides of politics.<\/p>\n Labor denounces protests as ‘not who we are’<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Penny Wong used a speech in the Senate to denounce the anti-immigration rallies and Neo-Nazis who attended them.<\/p>\n “Neo-Nazis and anti-immigration rallies are not who we are. These are not Australian values,” she said.<\/p>\n “Australians are not haters, Australians don\u2019t turn on one another.”<\/p>\n Senator Wong referenced her own family history, which includes Chinese and Malaysian heritage.<\/p>\n