Angus Taylor left the door open to cuts to the humanitarian visa program in order to reduce immigration rates to Australia. (AAP: Pip Farquharson )
Senior Coalition MPs are in disagreement over the party's position on reducing the humanitarian visa program.
The debate has become messy for the federal government, One Nation and now the Coalition, as the parties grapple with the practicalities of cutting Australia's migration program.
The federal government is yet to release its planned migration crackdown, the Coalition is yet to detail which visa programs it will seek to reduce, and One Nation is yet to detail where it will cut migration, beyond suggesting a reduction in international students.
The Coalition has joined Labor and One Nation to wrestle with itself over migration policy, as the three parties grapple with the realities of determining which communities and industries will lose out from attempts to cut immigration.
After tripping up Labor and One Nation earlier this week, division has now also emerged inside Angus Taylor's Coalition leadership team on whether to reduce the number of refugees granted humanitarian visas if the party was to win government.
Mr Taylor this morning opened the door to cuts to the refugee intake, just a day after a senior member of his party said it would not be touched.
"When we see what housing construction looks like, we will announce the [net overseas migration] number and the visa classes will align with that. What is clear though is we are a very generous country, but charity starts at home, and we have got to do the right thing by Australians first," Mr Taylor told News24.
That contrasts with comments yesterday by Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg that "refugees will not be the target of [the Coalition's] migration policy".
"The migration policy that we will resolve in due course will be focused on the other cohorts … We have been a proud nation that has housed millions of refugees since the Second World War, and I think it's important we maintain that status, and I just don't think it's refugees that are the problem here," Senator Bragg said.
Andrew Bragg said humanitarian visas would not be the target of the Coalition's migration cuts. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Shadow Foreign Minister Ted O'Brien told ABC Radio National "nobody is actually a target" of the Coalition's migration policy.
"When it comes to the numbers of different categories, they will be announced closer to the next election," Mr O'Brien said.
The debate follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's decision to kill off a plan to reduce the humanitarian visa intake from 20,000 places a year to 13,750 by allowing a temporary four-year increase to expire at the next federal budget.
Yesterday morning, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's office confirmed a decision had been taken to reduce the humanitarian visa program, angering left-faction Labor members who felt too much ground had been ceded on asylum seekers and refugees.
