Luke Grant is joined by Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the Department of Immigration & author of “Population Shock” to discuss the caretaker period pre-election and what happens as our public service wait to see who leads the way for the next parliamentary term.  Also important, what we need to know about the immigration numbers that of course are a key element of budget preparation.

Mr Rizvi has spoken a number of times about the facile nature of the immigration debate in Australia, on the part of both the groups calling for “immigration to be cut wherever possible” and the groups calling for a bigger Australia.

He says, the problem is the debate focuses on targets and numbers for permanent migration, often confusing this permanent migration program with what matters for the population, which is net migration.

At the same time he says, too little attention is paid to how migration targets would be delivered, the risks involved, and how the risks would be managed.

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