Immigration policy is often debated by politicians while in campaign mode, and the lead-up to this weekend's five key by-elections on Super Saturday (July 28th) has been no exception.
A leading business group has raised concerns over what it's describing as a "mischievous" immigration debate, accusing both Labor and the Coalition of misrepresenting figures.
The Turnbull government is spruiking the latest permanent migration numbers, which fell to the lowest level in 10 years, as an endorsement of tougher vetting procedures that cut down on "fraudulent applications."
In response, Labor has blasted the government for allowing around 1.6 million people to live in Australia on temporary visas that include the right to work.
Head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, James Pearson, says the rhetoric has been misleading.
"You know there are *lies, there are damn lies and there are statistics and I'm sorry to say that the numbers being bandied about in this debate are being bandied about in the most misleading way."
Mr Pearson says the claims and counter-claims are disappointing and confusing to voters, and mark an end to many years of relative bipartisanship on the skilled migration program.
Labor's argument takes in all temporary visa holders with any right to work, including international students, New Zealanders on special visas and backpackers.
But James Pearson says working holidaymakers have caps on how much work they can do in Australia, while international students are also limited to 40 hours per fortnight.
"Yes there are around 1.4 million people who have some form of right to work in their visa, but to suggest for a moment that all of those people are working let alone working full time is wrong, because many of them are not. It includes people like working holidaymakers who can only work for six months and then if they're able to get another six months of work. It includes students for example who can work no more than a maximum of 40 hours in a fortnight and many of them don't work at all."
The Migration Council's Carla Wilshire says all sides of the debate need to remember the Australian economy is heavily reliant on a certain level of migration flowing through.
" We need to be very careful when we talk about the migration program that we maintain a level of public confidence in what migration does, because once we lose that it will be very difficult to get it back. And I think we need to remember we run a migration program because it's in Australia's interests. All the indications are that its going to be axiomatic to our future so undercutting migration or underselling it or talking it down I think becomes very problematic."
Labor claims the international student issue is exacerbated by students that breach their work limits, often under pressure from employers.
The Migration Council says while there are some compliance issues with students, the level is not particularly high.
Ms Wilshire says the recent linking of immigration data with Australian Tax Office records has improved compliance.
"Our sense from looking at the data is that we're looking at more of a minority, not necessarily a significant portion, of [students] going beyond the 20 hours. And the other thing to remember is there has been an effort to tighten data, so the ATO can now access immigration data and vice versa and that pairing has really kind of helped to strengthen the compliance regime that exists around temporary migration."
Ms Wilshire says the debate needs to shift to consider migration in terms of Australia's future.
"So we need to start thinking about, you know, the next 20, 30 years. What sort of population size are we going to need in order to maintain our ranking, maintain our position in the global economy? More broadly than the global economy, what sort of size of population do we need to play within our region and be a significant player?"
