Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan

Dan Tehan said the Coalition would ‘announce what our better Australia will look like in the lead-up to the election’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.

In an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Tehan was repeatedly challenged to spell out the Coalition’s view on acceptable migration levels, but said: “I can tell you what it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be as high as what it is today.”