In March, Melbourne-based research company, Social Research Centre conducted a foreign policy poll of 1200 people across Australia. And for the first time, most Australians are set against the current immigration rate.
This year, 54 per cent of Australians think that the total number of migrants coming to Australia each year is too high and should be lowered. This is a 14-point jump from 2017 and 17-point jump from 2014.
Immigration rate has been a hot topic since last year when Turnbull government debated on whether to cut the number of immigrants from the previous annual cap of 190,000. This financial year, migrant intake has considerably decreased from the planned number and policies have gotten stricter.
However, based on the Lowy Institute poll, a large majority of Australians agree that ‘’Australia’s openness to people from all over the world is essential to who we are as a nation’’.