Anthony Albanese’s outsourcing of jobs to immigrants must not include breaking the bipartisan commitment that people who attempt to enter Australia illegally are never to be allowed permanent residency.

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson said retaining the policy was critical to prevent people from circumventing orderly immigration and deaths at sea from criminal people smuggling.

“The Albanese government and big business are determined to flood this country with more people instead of investing in a skilled Australian workforce,” Senator Hanson said. “They want to fast-track residency applications for people on temporary bridging visas instead of looking to the 900,000-plus Australians currently receiving unemployment benefits.

“The government must guarantee this does not include anyone who attempted to enter Australia illegally, whether they’re in offshore detention or in Australia due to medical evacuation. The Prime Minister’s desperate search for the wrong solutions to our skills shortage must not be used as an excuse for dismantling our borders.

“Both major parties, when they were in government and opposition, committed to stop deaths at sea by breaking the criminal people smugglers’ model and guaranteeing no-one who attempted to enter Australia illegally would be allowed to stay in the country. A skills shortage is no reason to go back on this commitment.”

Senator Hanson said high immigration was not the solution to Australia’s worker shortage.

“Priority must be given to jobs and skills for Australians,” she said. “We need to re-open TAFE colleges. We should fund more apprenticeship places. Australian universities should prioritise Australian students and industry demand instead of chasing the overseas student dollar.

“And for Australians able to work, we need to discourage long-term unemployment as a lifestyle choice. Restricting payment of unemployment benefits to two years in every five for people able to work would not only incentivise local job seeking but also save Australian taxpayers a great deal of money.”