by leave—I move:

That this House:

(1) agrees that Australians deserve a migration system in which they can have confidence, and of which migrants can be proud to be part, one that strengthens our economy, fills critical skills gaps, eases pressure on housing and essential services, and helps build a better Australia;

(2) condemns the Government for allowing unprecedented levels of migration to place unsustainable pressure on housing, infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals, and making it harder for Australians to buy a home;

(3) notes the Opposition's plan to reduce net overseas migration to 100,000 a year for the first two years and reduce the number of temporary visa holders by around 650,000 over four years;

(4) acknowledges the Opposition's commitment to raise migration standards by prioritising skilled migrants who meet Australia's genuine workforce needs; and

(5) recognises the Opposition's plan to strengthen the integrity of the migration system by ensuring temporary visas are genuinely temporary and reducing opportunities for visa hopping.

Australians deserve a migration system in which they can have confidence and of which migrants coming to Australia can be proud to be part—one that strengthens our economy, fills critical skills gaps, eases pressure on housing and essential services and helps to build a better Australia, as has our migration system for decades. But for too long under Labor, under this government, our migration numbers have been too high and the standards have been too low. This must change, and that's why the coalition have announced our plan to put in place the largest cut to migration in Australian history and to deliver more homes for Australians in order to take pressure off roads, schools and hospitals.

We will fix our migration program and bring in only the skills that Australia needs whilst delivering a budget-neutral package that protects the economy and the federal budget. We will take back control of our migration system and ensure that it works for Australia by bringing in the right people in the right numbers, with a focus on the skills that Australia needs and on the values of those coming here. We want migrants that are coming to Australia because of what this country is—not those who would seek to change it into something else. The Liberals and Nationals have fixed Labor's migration messes before, and we will do it again if the Australian people reward us with government once more.

The problem is pretty clear. Since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was elected to office, in just over four years, Labor has brought in some 1.5 million additional migrants to Australia, which is roughly the population of Adelaide. Even Labor premiers around the country, like New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, have agreed that this has simply been too many too quickly and has put pressure on our social infrastructure.

For every year that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been in power, net overseas migration has been higher than even his own government's budget papers suggested it would be. The scale and speed of Labor's migration surge has changed our way of life. It is unforgivable because it is putting pressure on housing, infrastructure, schools, roads and hospitals, and perhaps most grievously of all it is making it harder for young Australians to buy a home of their own. Labor has lost control of our borders and broken the integrity of our migration system, and that is why our plan is so important.

We will cut net overseas migration to 100,000 for the first two years, rising slowly after that. We will bring in highly skilled migrants that better meet Australia's needs by prioritising the skilled people and the skilled partners that we need, particularly when it comes to our construction and agricultural sectors. We will protect migration into the regions, particularly through the Working Holiday Maker program with an exemption for regional areas. Australians in regional areas like mine can't afford to run businesses dependent on some lottery scheme run by bureaucrats here in Canberra. We must maintain the integrity of that labour supply to regional Australia.

Equally, we will refocus our tertiary education sector and stop them selling visas and return them to selling quality education. It is simply unforgivable that universities have become—

An honourable member: Businesses!

Exactly. I take the interjection, and I absolutely agree with it because they have become places where folks from overseas are buying their way into Australia rather than buying a decent education. Worse still, they're displacing, in some cases, Australians from those very courses. We will abolish temporary graduate visas. We will take back control of our migration system by requiring second and subsequent applications to be made offshore. It's not to say that foreign students who come to Australia to study won't ever be able to make it through our skilled migration pathways, but they should have to return home and make an application on their merits to do so.

Finally, we will put values at the centre of our migration policy once more. We will cut the numbers. We will raise the standards. We'll take back control, and we will put Australia first because that's what any decent government should be doing.