Opposition leader Angus Taylor has defended the Coalition’s sweeping migration overhaul, arguing Australia needs fewer arrivals, a higher number of skilled workers and tougher standards on immigration.

The Coalition is promising to cut net migration by 100,000 people a year and reduce total migration by 650,000 over four years, in what Mr Taylor described as the biggest cut to immigration in the nation’s history when it was unveiled on Tuesday.

The plan would slash temporary visa numbers, abolish temporary graduate visas and restrict family members accompanying international students and halve the humanitarian intake to 10,000, while expanding pathways for for skilled workers needed in critical industries.

On Sunday, Mr Taylor said the changes would help restore control over Australia’s migration program and shift the focus from population growth towards productivity, wages and the skills the economy needs.

“What’s happening under Labor is they are driving economic growth through population growth alone,” Mr Taylor told ABC Insiders.

“There has been no growth in this country other than through population growth and that’s why out on the streets around Australia, in our towns, in our suburbs, in our metropolitan centres people are angry because they can’t get ahead.

“We have to get this economy working again, and part of that is having immigration policy where we are in control of our borders, we are bringing the skills in we need, and we have people who are contributing to the country by paying tax and giving us breathing space on infrastructure, on housing, on services, and frankly, breathing space for Australians to absorb the huge numbers that we’ve seen so far.”

Mr Taylor said the policy would be Budget neutral, despite questions about the lack of detailed public modelling to support the claim.

The Parliamentary Office had provided Budget analysis, he said, but faced constraints in modelling the proposal against Labor’s changing migration settings.

“We are very confident this is Budget neutral and the reason is we are raising the standards and cutting the numbers,” he added.

The Opposition leader rejected suggestions the reduction in temporary visa holders would worsen inflation or leave businesses struggling to find suitable workers, instead arguing the plan would prioritise skilled migrants who could boost productivity.

“If that person is low skilled, you are bringing more demand than supply. If they are high-skilled, you are bringing the opposite, actually bringing more supply and that puts downward pressure on prices, improves productivity,” Mr Taylor said.

“And that is exactly what we need right now at a time where one of the reasons why we’ve had a collapse in productivity in this country — it’s only one — is that our immigration program has not been working to drive up our productivity.”

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke accused the Coalition of having “declared war on the skilled migrants who Australians need”.

“Australia absolutely has shortages in aged care, in health, with doctors, with nurses in construction,” he told News24.

“And effectively the way they’ve designed it those skilled workers are exactly the people who we would now not get.”

But Mr Taylor hit back at Burke’s “nonsense” claims, saying transition arrangements would protect health and aged-care workers for a period, with employers eventually expected to recruit through alternative skilled visa pathways.

“There is a transition arrangement where health and aged-care workers, we are extending them in particular for a longer period of time so temporary graduate visas will still apply for those groups for a number of years,” Mr Taylor said.

“Then the aim will be to have people coming in on the temporary skilled visas which is the 100,000 or other skilled visas, that we have.”

with NCA Newswire