By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-06-18 08:23:24 | Updated at 2026-06-18 14:22:15
6 hours ago
SYDNEY - Australia’s immigration levels fell in 2025, official data showed on June 18, as its centre-left government seeks to combat an ascendent far-right riding a wave of public discontent over soaring housing prices and cost of living.
Net overseas migration added 301,000 people to Australia’s population of 28 million in 2025, Canberra’s Bureau of Statistics reported.
Immigration minister Tony Burke said the figure was down nine per cent from a year earlier and 45 per cent lower than a post-Covid-19 peak in 2023.
“We are bringing migration down with a sensible, measured approach to provide the skilled workers Australia needs,” Burke said.
International student numbers are falling as the government instead prioritised skilled workers “we need to care for our sick and elderly and build homes”, he added.
Australia’s Labor government is seeking to boost the supply of housing and lower costs through tax reforms.
Long a fringe movement, Pauline Hanson’s far-right One Nation has surged in 2026 to become the country’s most popular political party.
Hanson had leapt on an historically high number of arrivals when the border re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic to blame migrants for housing shortages.
The far-right provocateur is a long-standing critic of multiculturalism in Australia, where 8.8 million residents were born overseas.
Addressing Canberra’s National Press Club on June 17, Hanson called for Australia to instead embrace “monoculturalism”.
“Australians aren’t buying this crap from the political establishment and its media supporters anymore,” she said.
The opposition Liberal party – currently bleeding support to One Nation – said the migration figure was “still far too high”. AFP
