Labor backbenchers protest surprise plan to slash refugee admissions

Tony Burke’s office announced that the Home Affairs portfolio will lower the annual refugee resettlement target from 20,000 to 13,750, matching the baseline used during the Morrison era. The Labor government had lifted the quota to 20,000 in 2023, a figure that party members believed would be sustained under the National Platform. Four unnamed Labor MPs told one outlet the increase was presented as enduring, not temporary, and noted that the proposal had not been examined in any caucus forum.

At the ALP National Conference, delegates unanimously endorsed a resolution to keep the intake at 20,000 in the short term while aiming for 27,000 eventually, a commitment now described by critics as “sacred.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking at the Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit in Dubbo, warned against believing the report and said the policy was being refined in response to a “national need,” not solely to appease One Nation. Refugee Council of Australia chief Paul Power warned the cut would reverse a long-standing Labor pledge, while Asylum Seeker Resource Centre deputy chief Jana Favero called the decision an “extraordinary betrayal” of party members.