Discussion of Pauline's speech:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13220953/Pauline-Hanson-repeats-shockin...India was Australia's No.1 source of permanent overseas migration in 2023, followed by China, the Philippines, Nepal, the UK, New Zealand, Vietnam, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Unemployment in February fell back to 3.7 per cent, a big drop from January's two-year high level of 4.1 per cent as 116,500 new jobs were created in one month, new figures released on Thursday showed.
But Senator Hanson repeated her 1996 comments that migrants were going on the dole.
'Immigration must be halted in the short term so that our dole queues are not added to by, in many cases, unskilled migrants not fluent in the English language,' she said.
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Senator Hanson's comments came as a newly appointed Liberal senator called for Australia's immigration level to be slashed until housing supply can keep pace with rapid population growth.
A record 548,800 migrants moved to Australia in the year to September.
They made up 83.2 per cent of Australia's 659,900 new residents, including births minus deaths.
Australia's annual population growth pace of 2.5 per cent is at the highest level since the early 1950s, with the net immigration pace more than double the mining boom level of 244,000 in 2007.
It is also more than five times the 1996 level of 97,444 when Senator Hanson made her controversial maiden speech to the House of Representatives.
Dave Sharma, the former MP for the Sydney seat of Wentworth who has revived his political career as a Liberal senator for New South Wales, says immigration needed to be cut until Australia could supply sufficient housing.
'The shortage of housing is being exacerbated by high immigration, which is fuelling demand for already limited supply,' he said in his maiden speech to the Senate on Wednesday afternoon.
'Until we are able to accelerate the pace of our home building, we need to reduce our immigration intake or else we will simply place further pressure on our housing market.'