Immigration Policy

5-Year Immigration Moratorium

Mass immigration serves a simple role within our neoliberal economy; to push down real wages by introducing more competition into the labour market, and artificially inflate GDP in times of economic stagnation. Our immigration system is also outdated and in dire need of an overhaul.

The Eureka Party supports an immediate 5-year moratorium on all new permanent, working and student visas to protect wages, and give us time to rebuild our infrastructure and reset our immigration system, with special exemptions to be granted on a case-by-case basis and in accordance with the other special programs provided beneath. This moratorium will apply only to new visa applications, not to visa renewals, and family visas will be exempted exclusively for partner and child visas for Australian citizens, capped at 50,000 visas per year.

The Eureka Party seeks to establish active lines of public consultation with government during the moratorium period to determine the path forward for a new immigration system, with the option of extending the moratorium another 5 years if needed.

Reformed Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme

The current Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme too often treats Pacific workers as a source of cheap, temporary labour for the agricultural sector rather than as sovereign equals.

The Eureka Party supports reforming the PALM Scheme to grant temporary Pacific workers the full rights and protections provided in the Economic Bill of Rights during their stay, including abolishing tied visas to allow for full mobility within the country during their stay, including joining the Public Works Army.

Temporary Knowledge Transfer Visa Scheme

The Eureka Party supports the establishment of a Temporary Knowledge Transfer Visa Scheme for highly skilled workers in critical manufacturing and edge industries to temporarily work in Australia for a nonrenewable period of 5 years, for the purpose of knowledge transfer, training members of the Public Works Army on the job while building Australia’s domestic industrial base, being granted the full rights and protections provided in the Economic Bill of Rights during their stay.

The Reformed PALM Scheme and TKTV Scheme will be set at a combined cap of 100,000 visa spots at any given time.

Terminate the Australia-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement

Australia’s current migration agreements with India have become one of the fastest growing sources of immigration, lacking any formal caps, and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has professed an interest in utilising Indian diaspora populations in other countries as a foreign influence tool, citing the State of Israel’s strategy of using sympathetic Jewish diaspora communities for the same end. This poses an unacceptable potential risk to Australian sovereignty and national security in which both major parties are complicit.

The Eureka Party supports terminating the Australia-India Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement. This is not a racist policy, nor do we make any assumption about individual migrants from India – this is simply a proactive step to defend Australian sovereignty and security from demonstrated foreign influence risks by a foreign nation.

Citizen Repatriation Scheme

Many of our fellow Australian compatriots have left this great country in pursuit of a better life elsewhere amidst decades of government austerity and mismanagement. The Eureka Party believes it is time to reach out a hand and give them an opportunity to repatriate.

The Eureka Party supports the establishment of a Citizen Repatriation Scheme, offering economic incentives for Australian expats and their families to return home and contribute to rebuilding our shared homeland.

Promote Civic Integration and End State-Sanctioned Cultural Separatism

The decades-long neoliberal policy of multiculturalism, while originally a positive development beyond the White Australia status quo that preceded it in theory, has produced averse unintended consequences when paired with austerity and mass immigration, leading to ethnic and cultural ghettoisation, the proliferation of diaspora politics, and a loss of the incentives for civic integration, collectively damaging social cohesion, which is celebrated by the establishment as “diversity” and “inclusion”. These are not problems stemming from people, these are structural problems stemming from the crisis of neoliberalism.

The Eureka Party supports ending the neoliberal regime of state-sanctioned cultural separatism and promoting civic integration through the provision of access to English and civics classes, equalising living wage and labour rights for migrant communities, and building more housing to encourage mobility and end the proliferation of ethnic enclaves, along with an end to allowances for parallel institutions which advocate for extra-legal cultural allowances.

This is not racism, nor total assimilation asking migrants to give up religion or cultural practices. Learn the language, obey the law, respect the culture, and become a functioning and contributing member of society. That is all we ask.

Closure of Offshore Detention Facilities

The offshore detention regime on Manus Island (PNG) and Nauru has been a stain on Australia’s conscience and a textbook example of sub-imperial cruelty. Australia has outsourced its border control to Pacific neighbours, turning them into de facto prisons while subjecting vulnerable people to prolonged arbitrary detention, violence, and mental harm, all at obscene cost to Australia.

The Eureka Party supports the immediate and permanent closure of all remaining offshore detention infrastructure on Nauru and any legacy arrangements in Papua New Guinea. All current detainees will be brought to Australia for fair, fast-tracked, onshore processing of their applications. A Royal Commission will be established into human rights abuses in offshore detention (Nauru and PNG), with recommendations being actioned.

This is not opening the floodgates. Existing asylum applications will be grandfathered in accordance with strict vetting requirements, but no more issued during the 5-year moratorium period.

Deportations Policy

The Eureka Party supports the deportation of non-citizen migrants found guilty of violent criminal offences by the determination of a jury in a court of law. If you come here and kill, rape or otherwise violently harm another person, you can go home.

The Eureka Party supports case-by-case determination for undocumented immigrants and visa over-stayers residing in Australia who are not found guilty of any other serious crimes, about whether to provide amnesty in the form of visa extensions or permanent residency depending on how long they’ve been in the country, or deportation.

The Eureka Party supports the deportation of non-citizen members of known violent terrorist organisations which pose a known threat to public safety if membership is proven in a court of law.

SOLID RED LINES

The Eureka Party pledges not to cross the following ‘Solid Red Lines’ on immigration policy:

• NO arbitrary cancellation of visas without justifiable cause;

• NO deportations without due process for any reason;

• NO deportations or blanket immigration bans based solely on race, religion, or country of origin;

• NO deportations for exercising free speech or association (excluding association with violent terrorist organisations, see above).