THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2026
TOPICS: MIGRATION
NATALIE BARR: Let's get to the bottom of it and bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, morning to you. Tanya, we'll start with you. So, you were going to reform the skills test for how we bring in the best skilled migrants into this country. When's that going to happen?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES:Well, the Immigration Department's looking at it and it's important to get this right, Nat, because of course we need to have skilled migrants for our nation. Just one example is the AUKUS building project that we're doing now. This is thousands of jobs coming up in coming years and some of them are very highly skilled jobs. We need to make sure we're getting the best people in here with the best skills. One area where we have, for example, really increased skilled migration is in the building trades. We've tripled skilled migration in the building trades because one of the reasons that homes are so expensive to build at the moment is because we don't have the skilled workforce to build them. At the same time, we need to invest in TAFE and university and making sure that we're home growing a skilled workforce as well.
BARR: So, there was a cap on skilled migration at what, 84,000 each year? Is that cap still in place or you've increased it?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I'd have to check the numbers, but the cap's still in place. The permanent migration has not changed. It's 185,000 every year, it's been that. We dropped net migration by 40 per cent and year on year when we came to government. So, net migration's down. And that permanent number, 185,000, is the same as it's been. But within that, we need to make sure we're getting the people who benefit Australia. It's perfectly right that we need to select people who are going to add to our economic health and prosperity.
BARR: So, skilled migration has increased?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, 185,000 is the total permanent migration per year.
BARR: Right. So, we haven't increased the skilled workers we're bringing in the migration.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We've changed the makeup. We've tripled, we’ve tripled permanent, sorry, we've tripled construction migration, for example, people in the building trades.
BARR:Okay, within that packet.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK:Yes, that's right, yeah.
BARR: Okay. Barnaby, what's your response to this? Are you backing the way this government is handling skilled migration?
BARNABY JOYCE: That sounded totally confusing. There was 303,000 people that came in in 2025. It's been as high as 500,000. But we certainly haven't built in recent years. We certainly haven't built the houses even for last year for 303,000 people to come in. Skilled migration. Yep, absolutely. You've got to make sure that the skill sets are there, but you've got to make sure the nation has the capacity to absorb the people, that the houses are there. They've got to live in something when they arrive here. And what's happening is the price of housing because the housing stock is so low, is going through the roof. It's a supply and demand thing. That's what's the main thing that's driving up the price of houses. And then regulations at the state level and the price of materials, which of course we don't make domestically anymore because of our wondrous climate policies. And if we are going to be able to keep the social harmony, and I hear all the major parties now heading towards One Nation's policies because they're hearing the Australian people that we are losing the social harmony that we treasure so much in this nation, then we have to have the capacity to see whether the nation can absorb the people, do the stocktake first and then go for the skill sets you require. And you know, if you require more people with a skilled capacity and the nation has the capacity to absorb them, then I suppose you look at that decision. But this is, it's not right that we had 303,000 people that came in last year. It's in the paper.
BARR:Yeah, exactly. So, we've gone from 550 in 2022-23 to the 2024-25 number is 306,000.
JOYCE:[INAUDIBLE]
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So, we're talking about the difference between temporary and permanent though. 185,000 is the permanent number and it continues to be the permanent number. And within that we agree that we need to make sure that the skilled migrants that we're bringing to Australia are adding to our economic prosperity. But even Barnaby Joyce admits that we need some of those skilled workers. He knows in farming communities, if we don't have a temporary workforce coming in to help with the harvest, then that fruit rots on the trees. That harvest is not brought in. Barnaby knows that there are country towns that have doctors because we've invited doctors from other nations to come and settle because we haven't for years trained enough Australian doctors. So, what we're doing is we are training.
JOYCE:Well that’s kind of your problem, isn’t it?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK:Yeah, it takes 10 years.
JOYCE:It's kind of your problem that you’re not training the doctors.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It takes at least six or seven years to train a doctor. Barnaby if we had started six or seven years ago, we would have more doctors.
JOYCE:Well you’ve been there for about five. So, what are you doing now? What are you doing now?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK:We're training more doctors. We're training more doctors and we’re opening new--
JOYCE:[INAUDIBLE] won't be less than a few years.
BARR: Ok, hang on, Barnaby. Let's one talk at a time.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK:We're training more doctors and we're opening more medical schools. But in the meantime, if we hadn't invited doctors from overseas to work in country towns, there'd be country towns with no doctor. So, even Barnaby admits that we do need skilled migration. It just has to be set at the right level with the right skills. We agree, and that's why we're doing that. That's why we're getting on with it. And just interestingly, why didn't Barnaby Joyce vote for restrictions around international student numbers, like the Liberals and Nationals, when he was part of the Coalition, voted against restricting international student numbers. Why?
JOYCE: Well, is it my turn?
BARR: Yeah. Barnaby?
JOYCE: Well, first of all, the problem we've got, of course, is the unskilled migration that's landing in the southwest suburbs of Sydney. We've got the problem with the people coming in who don't actually end up in gainful employment on social security. The problem we've got, of course, is when you go to Melbourne, the crime wave that's quite apparent in certain areas that has obviously shown that we have not been across our migration policy. The problem we've got, of course, is that, yeah, we do need doctors and certain areas, but no matter how many doctors we've got, it's your settings that doesn't, doesn't drive them out there. We've got locums coming in at more than $3,000 a day. You haven't got the settings that actually allow us to have permanent doctors in remote areas. And you've got more doctors than enough in certain areas of Sydney. But you don't give us the settings to get those medical practitioners out of the bush so you can bring in more doctors and guess where you'll find them in Sydney.
BARR: So you're not making them go out. Once upon a time they had to do that. Tanya, is that a consideration? Because I do hear this from regional areas all the time, that they should be made to go for their first five years or something.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, I think there are programs that say if you're coming to a place, if you're coming to Australia, you've got to go to a particular place. And I think we definitely need to be training more Australian doctors as well. And that's why we're opening new medical schools around Australia.
JOYCE: Well, if that's the case, Tanya, why is it that I can go to towns such as Tenterfield, such as Glen Innes, we can't even get a doctor, a permanent doctor for the hospital. You're not going so well in your policy, Tanya.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK:Oh, and that was fixed when you were there, was it, Barnaby? There were no doctor shortages? We are fixing years of neglect from when you were in government.
JOYCE: You are the government, you always get to this point.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It takes 6, 7, 8, 10 years to train a specialist.
JOYCE: Tanya, it doesn’t take that long to bring them in.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Wouldn’t it have been great if we started when you were in government?
JOYCE: Tanya if you're bringing them in as immigrants-
BARR: So you want more immigration now, Barnaby?
JOYCE: If you’re bringing them in as immigrants, Tanya, you've just said that and you're doing it to help regional areas, then why aren't you helping regional areas? Why are we without doctors, Tanya?
BARR: Ok, so we need to get the immigration settings right. Because AUKUS needs is 300,000 people short for that workforce. They need jobs like architects, engineers, scientists. As far as I know, you have to go to uni for that. They need labourers and project managers. That is all facing a shortfall. We will leave it there. We'll see you next week.
ENDS
