Jacinta Price claims Labor is importing Indian voters

Immigration claims against Labor Government fail under scrutiny; The data tells a different story. Doctor Abul Rizvi reports.

JACINTA PRICE’S comments that Labor manipulated its immigration program to favor Indian immigrants for political purposes have been rejected by its leader. Susan Ley. He backtracked on his allegations to some extent, but did not apologize. So is there any basis for their claims?

Price was asked if he thought people were worried. “core number or type of incoming immigrants”.

He said:

“That’s absolutely the base number. And of course this Government is focusing on getting them in from certain countries rather than others… Labor likes to make sure they let in those who will ultimately support their policies, their views and vote for them.”

Price was asked whether he believed the Government was actively running an immigration program to bring in people who were open to their ideas, and the senator said “absolutely”.

He continued:

“That’s the Labor Party. It’s basically power at any cost. And we see that happening everywhere in terms of the way they conduct themselves… There’s a concern about the Indian community, as you point out, and that’s just because there are so many of them, and we can see that reflected in the way the community also votes Labor.”

What Price did not explain was specifically how the Government had acted to favor immigrants from certain backgrounds. His approach of making provocative comments without providing any evidence appears to reflect his affinity for the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement in the US.

Price later said:

“Australia maintains a long-standing, bipartisan, non-discriminatory immigration policy. Any suggestion otherwise is a mistake… These remarks were made in a wide-ranging interview on the ABC in which I sought to highlight the issues of uncontrolled mass immigration and the breakdown in social cohesion.”

He later accused interviewer Patricia Karvelas and others in the media of misrepresenting his comments. This is a standard tactic used by politicians who step into this business.

As he and his followers are likely to continue pushing the idea that Labor is manipulating the immigration/citizenship system to favor certain groups, particularly Indian immigrants, it pays to look at the facts.

In order for an immigrant to vote in Australia, they must first obtain a permanent resident visa. There is currently a huge backlog of applications for permanent visas and the Government has kept the size of the permanent migration program in 2025-26 at the same level as in 2024-25 (i.e. 185,000). In other words, Government policy itself is to restrict the number of people who qualify for permanent residence and therefore the citizenship required to be able to vote.

Each permanent resident must also meet the four-year residency requirement, pass the citizenship test, and process the citizenship application. Once they are granted citizenship, they can apply to register to vote. After all, this is not the kind of rapid process suggested by those who claim the system is being manipulated.

If Price were correct in his claims, there would need to be a significant change in the proportion of permanent immigrants from India, followed by a change in the proportion of Indian immigrants acquiring citizenship by transfer.

India has been the leading source of immigrants to Australia every year since 2009-10 except 2020-21. That year it was overtaken by China as the Coalition Government decided to reduce the size of its immigration program while also clearing a large backlog in its Business Innovation and Investment Program (BIIP), which was dominated by applicants from China.

Was this a decision to favor immigrants from China over India? I doubt it. The decision to start clearing BIIP’s backlog was made under pressure from certain investment consultancy firms and certain immigration agencies (both of which profit from these visas). Peter Dutton in fact, he promised to reprioritize such visas if elected. These visas have a checkered history in Australia linked to money laundering and crime. For this reason Donald Trump loves these visas this much.

The proportion and absolute number of immigrants from India first peaked in 2012-13 (21.1% and 40,051) and again in 2015-16 (21.2% and 40,145). At that time, was the Coalition trying to rally Indian immigrants to vote for them? I doubt it.

The inflow of Indian migrants increased again in 2023-24 (26.2% and 49,848) and 2024-25 (26.1% and 48,326).

Were the results in 2023-24 and 2024-25 due to decisions favoring Indian immigrants or decisions favoring skill stream immigrants outside the BIIP? Note that the vast majority of skills stream immigrants enter through the employer-sponsored category and state/territory nominated categories. Has the Labor Government told employers and state/territory governments to support Indian immigrants? I doubt it.

The category over which the Federal Government has significant discretion is the scores tested by the skilled independent category. However, in 2024-25, the size of this category decreased from 30,375 in 2023-24 to 16,900. Why would Labor cut the category in which it has the most discretion to target certain nationalities if that is what it wants to do?

The main occupations in the skilled independent category in 2024-25 are nurses (1,467), early childhood teachers (951), civil engineering professionals (676) and carpenters and joiners (666); architects (605). Was the government targeting these professions or Indian immigrants?

However, securing the right to permanent residence is not enough to be able to vote. The immigrant must also obtain citizenship.

The proportion and number of Indian immigrants who obtained citizenship by entitlement (and thus became eligible to vote) fell from 22.3% in 2018-19 and 38,209 in 2019-20 to 13.9% and 23,015 in 2024-25. In fact, over the last two financial years New Zealand has overtaken India as the main source of immigrants acquiring Australian citizenship.

In 2024-25, 33,103 New Zealand citizens were granted Australian citizenship, compared to 23,015 Indian immigrants.

The truth is that Jacinta Price’s statements that Labor are importing Indians to vote for them do not pass without scrutiny. It was pure dog whistling.

Doctor Abul Rizvi Independent Australian columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Service. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul.

Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.