CANBERRA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has ruled out cutting Australia's migrant intake in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Morrison on Tuesday evening warned that any cuts to Australia's skilled migrant program would significantly hurt the economy as well as ethnic communities.
In a column published in Nine Entertainment newspapers on Sunday Kristina Keneally, the Oppositon Labor Party's Home Affairs spokesperson, called for a permanent re-think of Australia's dependence on temporary workers so that Australian workers could have a "first go" at getting jobs.
In response Morrison said that temporary skilled visas were important because a large percentage of permanent residents in Australia applied when they were already in the country on a temporary visa.
"If you're wanting to hack into the temporary skilled migration program, you're basically saying you want to hack into the skilled permanent migration program and those communities all around the country," he said.
"I think that's an insensitive way of dealing with that and an unbalanced way that's not only not good for the economy, but equally, I think it puts unnecessary pressures on particular communities around Australia."
Morrison said on Friday that migrant arrivals in Australia are expected to fall by 30 percent in 2019-20 then by 85 percent in 2020-21 as a result of COVID-19. Enditem
