SYDNEY: Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pic) said on Monday (June 8) migration levels are reducing, responding to an opinion poll showing a right-wing populist party ahead of governing Labor.
Support for Australia's One Nation party was 31 per cent, ahead of Labor on 30 per cent, a Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper on Monday showed.
The poll of 1,240 people is the second major survey to show anti-migration One Nation in a leading position.
Asked by reporters about the surge in support, Albanese said the rise of populist political parties was a global trend, and he wants social cohesion at the core of Australian identity.
Australia's population reached 28 million in June.
One Nation has seized on comparatively high recent net migration -- government data shows 538,000 net arrivals in 2023, 429,000 in 2024, and 306,000 last year -- as the cause of a housing shortage.
The government has said high arrivals in those years are due to a backlog of students and workers entering the country after borders were closed during Covid-19.
Albanese said people were struggling with housing and an economy that "isn't working for them".
"We will reduce the net overseas migration over the next couple of years down to 225,000. We think that is the right number," Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
"The fact that we have people who have come from all over the world, proud to call Australia home, is something that is a national asset for us," he added.
Almost half of Australians have a parent born overseas, census data shows.
An Australian election is not due until 2028.
Albanese's government holds a majority of seats in the parliament's lower house, where One Nation won its first seat last month in a by-election. - AFP
