Australian election focuses on immigration cuts

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Both sides of Australian politics committed to cut immigration numbers on Sunday, angering business, as the campaign for the August 21 election enters its second week.Opposition leader Tony Abbott promised to curb the immigration intake from 300,000 people a year last year to around 170,000 a year, and to ensure population growth slows to around 1.4 percent from more than 2.0 percent."What we would do is manage the programme to bring it down to what we think are sustainable long-term numbers," Abbott told reporters on Sunday.But the government hit back and said the immigration intake was already falling to around 230,000 people this year, due to a crackdown on student and temporary work visas, and would fall further to around 145,000 people by 2012."All that he has done is look at the projection for the following year, claimed that it is his own policy and thought he could get away with fooling the Australian people," Population Minister Tony Burke told reporters.Australia is going through an immigration boom as it seeks skilled workers and in a tight labour market, and former prime minister Kevin Rudd had championed population growth from about 22 million to 36 million by 2050.But the move had upset many people in crowded outer suburbs around the biggest cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where government services are struggling to keep up with growth and where housing is becoming less affordable.Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who replaced Rudd in late June, was quick to move away from Rudd's big Australia policy and has instead promised a more sustainable population, although she has refused to set any targets.Australia is a nation of immigrants, with around one in four Australians born overseas. Both Gillard and Abbott were born in Britain but migrated to Australia as children.But immigration has always been a sensitive political issue in Australia, particularly policy towards asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat, with both sides of politics promising to be tough on border protection.The Business Council of Australia, which represents the country's biggest industries, said the tough talk on cutting immigration was not in the national interest."Growth will offset the effects of Australia's ageing population and ensure that governments have the revenue they need to pay for health care, education, infrastructure and environmental initiatives," council chief executive Katie Lahey said in a statement.The immigration came ahead of the only televised leaders' debate of the campaign on Sunday, with opinion polls suggesting Gillard's government is on track to win on August 21.A Nielsen poll on Saturday found Gillard had consolidated her lead in the first week of the campaign, while the Reuters Poll Trend on Thursday found Gillard on track to win a larger majority on August 21.Earlier, Abbott's Liberal Party suffered an election setback when it dumped a candidate for a Sydney-based seat for criticising Gillard for being an atheist and criticising his Labor party opponent for being Muslim."He will not be our candidate by the close of business today. Tony Abbott has taken a very firm view on this," opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey told Australian television.Reuters election cover at www.reuters.com/places/australia)(Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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