Hanson Grills Labor Over Immigration Numbers in Senate Clash

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has sparked a sharp Senate confrontation with the Albanese government over Australia's immigration intake, demanding answers on permanent visa numbers while accusing Labor of using mass migration to mask poor economic management.

Senator Hanson directed her question to the minister representing the immigration portfolio, noting that more than 350,000 permanent resident visas and citizenships were granted in the last financial year alone — an intake she compared to adding roughly one and a half times the entire population of Hobart in a single year.

After a brief procedural mix-up saw the question redirected from Senator Ayres to Senator Murray Watt, the minister pushed back firmly, arguing the government had made substantial progress winding back post-pandemic migration levels.

"One inconvenient fact for the One Nation Party is that this government has nearly halved net overseas migration since it spiked after the COVID epidemic," Senator Watt told the chamber. He attributed the earlier surge to migration being effectively suspended during the pandemic, with a sharp rebound as international movement resumed and Australians returned home.

The minister also pointed to what he described as a "completely broken migration system" inherited from the former Coalition government under Peter Dutton, arguing that structural faults compounded the post-COVID influx. Labor claims net overseas migration has been reduced by 45 per cent from its peak, with further reductions expected.

Senator Hanson was not satisfied. In her first supplementary question she argued that more than two million arrivals since Labor took office represented real and lasting damage to housing affordability and living standards. She challenged the government's timeline, questioning why migration targets would not fall to 225,000 until 2027-28, calling even that figure too high.

Senator Watt maintained the government had acted decisively while also investing tens of billions of dollars in social and affordable housing — and he turned the attack back on One Nation, pointing out the party had voted against every piece of housing funding legislation alongside the Liberal and National parties.

Senator Hanson's second supplementary raised questions about the composition of arrivals, citing analysis she said showed only 20 per cent of the 301,000 net overseas migrants recorded in 2025 were skilled workers. She further questioned whether the government's skilled migration list was meaningful, noting it included occupations such as dog handler, hairdresser, gardener, golfer and migration agent.

Senator Watt declined to engage on the occupations claim and instead accused Hanson of a longstanding political agenda of division — against Indigenous Australians, and now against migrants. He argued One Nation's prescription for Australia was "more division and more chaos," contrasting it with Labor's stated goal of unifying the country.

The exchange highlighted an ongoing tension at the heart of Australia's immigration debate: how to balance labour market needs and humanitarian commitments against housing pressure and community infrastructure, with no side in the Senate yet offering a position free from attack.