00:02Keeping mum on Monday's cabinet meeting.
00:05Every cabinet meeting is cracking.
00:06Yeah, sure.
00:07Chris Bowen downplays talk of a bust up over a looming immigration crackdown.
00:12The details were to be unveiled at this very venue tomorrow
00:16until Tony Burke unexpectedly postponed.
00:19Tony's all across this. He's making good progress.
00:22At issue, the numbers.
00:24Net overseas migration is the number of people arriving to live in Australia
00:28minus those departing to live overseas.
00:31It peaked after COVID at more than 500,000 and has fallen sharply.
00:36But it's still well above Labor's own target.
00:40The government's aiming to bring the figure down to 225,000.
00:44With One Nation on the march.
00:46Something's rotten with this Labor government.
00:49And the coalition pledging deep cuts.
00:51Labor is taking a harder line.
00:54Considering changes including cutting the number of backpacker visas,
00:57restricting asylum seeker appeal rights and toughening family reunion rules.
01:03The aim? To clamp down on temporary visas.
01:06But it's contentious.
01:08The family reunion program is a very important one and a very successful one.
01:11Used by citizens and permanent residents to bring their partners and children to Australia.
01:16We don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot.
01:19Business heavily reliant on migrant workers.
01:22Warning against any changes at all.
01:24Don't rush into these things and don't just respond to shallow political imperatives.
01:29The Labor party room and indeed the cabinet is very divided on this one.
01:34Tony Burke's office insists he'll unveil the changes soon and simply needed more time to iron out the details.
01:41Having consistently overshot its migration targets,
01:45Labor is under pressure to show it has control over the system.
01:49Any change carries potential economic and legal risks.
01:52But there's also a political risk for Labor, which the minister is seeking to address.
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