A former Conservative frontbencher says the Coalition should focus less on migration figures, which “could go up” and “could go down”, and urged it to consider who enters Australia instead.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley was forced to suspend her migration policy publication in December over concerns about crumbling social cohesion in the aftermath of the crisis. Mass shooting on Bondi Beach.
Ley has repeatedly said migration figures are too high, and her predecessor, Peter Dutton, pledged to reduce migration numbers by 100,000 people each year before elections, but the coalition has not committed to a figure since Ley became leader.
As Ley considers the coalition’s strategy for the new year, Philip Ruddock – who held the immigration portfolio for seven years under former Prime Minister John Howard – advised against being fixated on program numbers.
Ruddock was appointed immigration minister following the Coalition’s 1996 election victory and held the position until 2003, making him the longest-serving minister of the Howard government.
“The emphasis must be on close family reunification,” Ruddock told SBS News in early December.
“About bringing people with the skills we need to help create growth in our economy, and that has to be done in a completely non-discriminatory way.”
This includes race, culture and religion, he said, with Australia demonstrating that “you can bring together people of great diversity and still be one”.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released in December showed net overseas migration in 2024-25 was 306,000, up from 429,000 a year earlier.
The number of migrants also fell by 14 percent to 568,000, with international students making up the largest component at 157,000.
According to newly released 2005 Cabinet documents, the 2003-2004 non-humanitarian migration program was implemented in approximately 114,360 places.
Ruddock was an MP for 43 years and retired in 2016. He is widely known for having a tough stance on asylum seekers.
Ruddock was instrumental in implementing the ‘Pacific Solution’, which saw hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived by boat turned back and sent to Nauru and Papua New Guinea for detention and offshore processing.
His use of controversial language when calling asylum seekers, especially those arriving by boat, ‘illegals’ and ‘queue jumpers’ contributed to a negative framing of the debate.
Housing is not part of the migration debate, Ruddock claims
Ruddock recalled the difference in the debate on migration twenty years earlier, prior to the publication of the 2005 Cabinet papers, which shed light on the government’s decisions at the time.
He said topical issues that often featured in debates on migration, such as housing, were not as prominent in the mid-2000s.
“There has never been a debate about housing in terms of the number of people we could house. I think we have been able to meet the needs,” Ruddock said.
“We have a larger immigration program per population than any other country in the world, and it has generated a significant portion of our economic growth.”
The Howard government was largely focused on asylum seekers and boat returns.
Amanda Vanstone, who succeeded Ruddock as immigration minister, urged the Cabinet in 2005 to consider expanding the migration program by 20,000 people, the newly released documents show.
The intention was to expand the program to 115,000 to 125,000 places, with a reserve of 15,000 for additional skilled migrants.
Vandstone argued the increase would “enable overseas students to undertake apprenticeships on a fully paid basis in regional Australia” and address a key area of skills shortage: traditional professions.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet questioned how this increase would address labor and skills shortages and requested further detailed analysis.
Howard, who supported Vandstone, said “we have an economic need for more skilled people right now,” before announcing the increase in overall intake in April that year.
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