Nationals leader Matt Canavan has warned Australians could face longer waits for an Uber under a future Coalition government as the opposition unveils sweeping cuts to migration. 

Speaking on News24 on Tuesday, Senator Canavan defended the Coalition’s newly unveiled migration policy, and acknowledged cutting the number of temporary visa holders would affect parts of the gig economy, including ride-share services.

‘Of course, this large temporary visa population are also doing a lot of work in our gig economy,’ he said.

‘I know people get a benefit from having their Uber easily accessible, but that benefit is not outweighed by the pressure we’re seeing on our housing stock, on our infrastructure, on our hospitals and schools.’

Under the plan, a Coalition government would cut net overseas migration to 100,000 for the first two years and slash the number of temporary visa holders by about 650,000 over four years. 

It would also abolish temporary graduate visas, reduce international student numbers and require most applicants seeking a second temporary visa to apply from offshore.

The Coalition would retain the permanent skilled migration program at 185,000 places a year, while expanding pathways for highly skilled workers and introducing a new skilled project visa stream.

Of the policy, Canavan argued Australians would have to accept some trade-offs if migration levels were reduced.

The Coalition would slash the number of temporary visa holders by 650,000 over four years 

‘We have to balance the number of people coming to this country to actually maintain living standards in this country, and that’s not happening under this Labor government,’ he said.

The Queensland senator said the Coalition aims to reverse what he called Labor’s ‘experiment of mass migration’ by dramatically reducing the number of temporary visa holders in Australia.

‘We’ve seen an extraordinary explosion in the temporary visa population of this country, from about two million before COVID to three million today,’ he said.

‘Our cuts today, which will be the biggest planned cut to migration in Australia’s history, will go back down towards those levels we had just before COVID.’

Canavan argued Australia experienced stronger economic outcomes before the surge in migration following the pandemic.

‘Before COVID, we had a stronger economy than we have now,’ he said.

‘We had higher productivity growth and we had actual real wage growth. Ever since Labor has been running this experiment of mass migration, we’ve actually had declining productivity levels and declining real wages.’

Canavan argued that the larger pool of temporary migrant workers had suppressed Australian wages.

 Matt Canavan said Australia would see less gig workers such as Uber drivers (file) 

‘In my view, a cheaper foreign labour force, a temporary labour force, has been allowed to undermine and undercut the wages of Australians.’

The Coalition’s policy would reduce the number of temporary visa holders while increasing access to some skilled migration pathways.

Asked who would fill jobs currently performed by migrant workers, particularly in sectors such as aged care and healthcare, Canavan said the Coalition had deliberately protected key industries.

‘We’ll be going back to a temporary visa population level similar to what we had before COVID, and we did those jobs then and we’ll do them again,’ he said.

‘While we’re ending temporary graduate visas, we’ll give people in the transition the opportunity to apply for visas that are in key areas like health and education to make sure that we have skills in those fields.’

Canavan also defended plans to force some visa applicants to leave Australia before seeking another visa, saying the current system had fuelled a sharp increase in bridging visas.

‘I was gobsmacked that when Tony Burke addressed the Press Club a couple of weeks ago, there was no plan to deal with that massive increase in bridging visas under their watch.’

‘We do have a plan for that because this is not how the system was designed and it’s not how it’s meant to be working, so let’s fix it.’