[Tubby Isaacs]

The argument is that Starmer should have told people this and gone in more forcefully on this issue.

I think lots of people know this about Farage though, same as they knew the stuff about Trump. A general election with Reform as the challenger would obviously look different to local elections with them as the plucky outsider, but I think there might be limited capacity for hits.

[Bones McCoy]

[Tubby Isaacs]

Does Debra Kidd know that Australia under Albanese are doing worse than the stuff Yvette Cooper gets criticism for? As Ian said, they weren't getting killed on stopping boats because boats had already been stopped.

[The Weeping Angel]

Does Debra Kidd know that Australia under Albanese are doing worse than the stuff Yvette Cooper gets criticism for? As Ian said, they weren't getting killed on stopping boats because boats had already been stopped.

What exactly are they doing?

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is what Tony Abbott introduced. My impression is that turn backs, very controversial, are still happening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation ... gn_Borders

[The Weeping Angel]

This is what Tony Abbott introduced. My impression is that turn backs, very controversial, are still happening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation ... gn_Borders

If the government did that, the outrage in online left/liberal circles would be off the scale.

[The Weeping Angel]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67609963

The Australian government says it will halve the migration intake within two years in an attempt to fix the country's "broken" immigration system.

It aims to slash the annual intake to 250,000 - roughly in line with pre-pandemic levels - by June 2025.

Visa rules for international students and low-skilled workers will also be tightened under the new plan.

Migration has climbed to record levels in Australia, adding pressure to housing and infrastructure woes.

But there remains a shortage of skilled workers, and the country struggles to attract them.

Unveiling a new 10-year immigration strategy at a media briefing on Monday, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said the migration system had been left "in tatters" by the previous government.

A review earlier this year found the system was "badly broken" - unnecessarily complex, slow and inefficient - and in need of "major reform".

A record 510,000 people came to Australia in the year to June 2023, but the minister said her government would "bring numbers back under control" and reduce the annual migration intake by around 50%.

Among the new measures are tougher minimum English-language requirements for international students, and more scrutiny of those applying for a second visa - they must prove that any further study would advance their academic aspirations or their careers. There are some 650,000 foreign students in Australia, with many of them on their second visa, according to official data.

The visa pathways for migrants with "specialist" or "essential" skills - like highly-skilled tech workers or care workers - have also been improved to offer better prospects of permanent residency.

Yeah, if Labour proposed something like this, then all those people saying why can't Labour be more like Labor would not be happy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, if Labour proposed something like this, then all those people saying why can't Labour be more like Labor would not be happy.

I hadn't seen that, good spot. In fairness the population of Australia makes those numbers bigger than they would be in a UK context, but you could equally say they're "running scared of Peter Dutton" or whoever. I think some of the Labour rhetoric here has been a bit silly. Nobody seriously think Boris Johnson was running an "experiment in open borders", but most changes seem fairly modest. It doesn't help that there's a large constituency now for high levels of immigration that opposes development.