Australia has never driven migration into reverse by design. Would slamming the brakes on be calamitous?

Australia does have a migration challenge – but it’s not what One Nation and the Coalition think it is Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast Australia is flirting with the idea of something it has never done: deliberately driving net overseas migration into reverse . In the history of our immigrant nation, extended periods of more people leaving our shores than arriving have only happened during convulsive moments: economic collapses, wars, and pandemics. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here