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Health Minister Mark Butler has batted down suggestions Labor are “returning to the drawing board” on its migration policy, after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke cancelled an immigration address to the National Press Club last week.
Speaking to Nine’s Today show this morning, Butler said the government were trying to achieve a “balance” between the need for skilled migrants and the need to reduce net migration numbers.
“The net migration numbers are down by almost a half … We’re looking at what else we can do to get those numbers down and be smarter about the balance that Australia needs.
“There are gaps in our workforce, as I said, in construction, in health, in IT. But we also do need a system here. So while we’ve got those numbers down by almost a half, we had said that we want to get them down more to make sure we achieve that balance,” Butler said.
Burke’s address was called off following a cabinet meeting last Monday. A new date for the speech has not yet been confirmed.
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