A member of the audience during Australia’s first election debate has been criticised for a pro-mass immigration question where he complained that limiting foreign student numbers would damage the country’s “brand”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton faced off at the Tuesday night event, organised by Sky News Australia and The Daily Telegraph, where migration emerged as one of the main issues of the campaign.
Both leaders responded to questions from the left-leaning audience on international students caps, and Mr Dutton alone was asked what he was doing to ensure “discussions remain respectful and avoid demonising migrants”.
One man asked whether Mr Dutton’s student cap plan, which conservative voters say doesn’t go far enough, would cause his child’s university fees to go up, and in a follow-up question claimed that it “hurts our brand” to limit foreign student numbers.
Ladies and gentlemen
I present to you the dumbest pro migration suburban humanoid in Australia @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/cDhD1pAaGG— ShiningLightXL🇦🇺🦘🌏 (@ShiningLightXL) April 8, 2025
“Part of Australia, our way of life, is sharing our way of life with the rest of the world,” he began.
“So part of our humanity is doing good, so us training other people from all around the world gives them an open opportunity to witness our Australianism.
“And so by not allowing those students to come to Australia, it actually hurts our brand worldwide.”
The clip sparked an outpouring of derision from X users after it was posted with the caption “Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the dumbest pro migration suburban humanoid in Australia”.
“Haha my husband and I were laughing so hard listening to this one! He doesn’t understand that flooding us with immigrants means ruining our culture and way of life!” wrote one Aussie
“That idiot was worried about the cost of his son’s uni degree. He should be more worried about the cost of his son’s first home and if there will even be one available to buy,” said another.
“‘Not allowing foreigners to come here hurts our brand’. Bro this is my country not a ‘brand’,” said a third.
Mr Dutton responded to the question during the debate by saying the country had “been made better because of our migration story” but there had been too many international student arrivals.
“I’m all in favour of a well-managed migration program, but I’m not in favour of what the prime minister has done by flooding the market, and a person is coming in every 44 seconds into our country, and we haven’t got the housing to accommodate that,” he said.
Mr Albanese responded by claiming that “the population today is lower than what was anticipated in 2019”, and “migration levels fell in the last year by 31%”.
When asked about “demonising migrants”, Mr Dutton said: “I think we are a greater country because of our migrant story and I think we should celebrate it more as a country. People who came here with nothing, people who have worked hard. The same story of migrants today.
“We have to a well-managed program, and when you bring in a million people over the course of two years, that is going to have an impact on health services, on infrastructure, on education, right across the economy.”
Another questioner asked what both leaders were doing to make sure Australians are able to buy homes before immigrants, and both responded by spruiking their identical policies preventing foreign buyers from purchasing existing homes for two years.
On Wednesday, following Sky News Australia’s declaration that Mr Albanese won the debate, Mr Dutton announced he would limit net migration to 160,000 next financial year – 100,000 lower than Labor’s target.
He made the same commitment after the 2024 Budget, before suddenly refusing to commit to the target in December.
The Opposition leader had previously campaigned on a 25% cut to permanent migration only, but said on Wednesday he would reduce the number “straight away”, slammed Labor for their net migration forecast blowouts, and promised to “get young Australians into housing”.
Header image credit: Sky News Australia.
