Tony Burke suddenly cancels announcement on migration levels amid claims Labor Party is split on issue

Labor is scrambling to finalise a crackdown on Australia’s immigration settings after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke cancelled a highly anticipated National Press Club appearance this week to unveil the new approach.

Government sources have told The Nightly that broad agreement was reached for the overhaul during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles on Monday, but the “finer details” of the policy are still being ironed out.

Over recent months senior Labor figures have become increasingly attuned to growing voter angst over migration levels which some MPs fear is boosting support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.

During a visit to Thursday Island, Mr Marles was questioned about the Home Affairs Minister’s postponed press club address and insisted there were no disagreements inside government about Labor’s new policy direction.

“Tony Burke is seeking to reschedule his appearance at the National Press Club at the earliest opportunity, and that’s what will occur,” Mr Marles told reporters.

“We’ve been working through immigration policy ahead of the Budget. We continue to do that. Obviously, Tony leads all of that, and he’ll be speaking about that as soon as he can when this is rescheduled at the National Press Club.”

Pressed on whether there were any disagreements inside Government over the new policy direction, the acting Prime Minister responded “no”.

“We’ve been working through the policy. I mean, there’s been a whole lot of iterations of what we’ve done in the space of immigration over the time that we’ve been in Government, and I remind people that immigration levels are down 45 per cent on the peak coming out of the post-pandemic years.”

“So, we’ve done a significant job in reducing immigration to the country. And Tony Burke will be detailing where the Government is at, at the earliest opportunity at the National Press Club.”

The Nightly has learnt that during last month’s Labor Party national conference representatives of the business community questioned the Home Affairs Minister about their concerns over the Government’s looming immigration overhaul.

“We immediately said, well, if there are cuts then you need to prioritise employer sponsored rather than independent migrants,” one figure from a large employer association told The Nightly.

“It was an interesting contrast to the actual conference discussions where the narrative was all about ‘we’re not One Nation and we love migrants’,” the representative said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

In a social media video posted on Wednesday, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson slammed Tony Burke’s expected plan to rein in migration, claiming the Albanese Government was split on the push.

“Something rotten with this Labor Government,’’ she said.

“Tony Burke was meant to give a big speech about cutting migration this week, but he cancelled it. Why? Because his Cabinet doesn’t want to cut a thing.

“Here are the facts: Labor has brought in more people than any time in our history, 1.5 million in just four years. That’s double the population of the Gold Coast and triple the size of Tasmania.”

“Labor has destroyed our borders before. (Anthony) Albanese was deputy prime minister, while Burke was immigration minister the last time illegal migrants swamped our borders.

“Now Burke is fighting his own Cabinet, the unions, and the Greens. He wants to look like he’s cutting migration, but he’s not. He’s lying.

“But we will never welcome alleged ISIS terrorists. This is a Government that won’t tell you the truth,” the Senator claimed.

During a visit to Western Australia, Acting Opposition Leader Jane Hume seized on the Government’s delayed unveiling of its new immigration policies, declaring: “we’ve said for a long time that migration numbers have been out of control”.

“One point four million migrants to the country in the last four years alone is record numbers of migration,” she told reporters in Perth.

“Now we’re a great migrant nation. Don’t get me wrong. Our prosperity has been built off the back of the entrepreneurial spirit of migrants for decades. But the problem has been that the numbers have been too high, and our standards have been too low.”