Asia-Pacific

Former Labor leader urges to cut immigration in Australia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-22 11:11

CANBERRA - Former Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham labeled Labor Party's position on population growth "a fraud of the worst order", saying immigration numbers must be slashed, media reported on Thursday.

Speaking on Sky News on Wednesday night, Latham said it was not good enough for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to simply call for a debate on population, and she had to put forward a concrete plan on the issue.

Gillard's "sustainable" population call was not backed with any substance and was a "fraud" designed to appeal to western Sydney voters sensitive to the asylum seeker issue, Latham said.

"It's clever politics, but it's a fraud. It's a fraud of the worst order," he told Sky News.

The former Labor leader said Australia needed to "take off the population pressure".

His comments followed statements by Gillard on Sunday that she did not want to specify a population target but did not support the idea of "a big Australia".

Latham, who lost the 2004 vote to former Liberal prime minister John Howard, predicted a Labor win in the August 21 election but said there was little difference between the two major parties.

"This is a campaign which is a race for convergence, where I can't really work out what the difference is," he said.

" ... whoever gets in basically has got the same stand on the big issues: economic policy, foreign policy, asylum seekers, education, health, workplace relations, now."