Tony Burke continues:

With net migration, the key driver any government has over it is how many visas you issue. There are some visas where we have taken action like we have with respect to student visas, action which they voted to make unlimited. Other actions we have taken, we got rid of the golden ticket fees are, one of the things that would feed into net migration figures, that is what we previously described as cash for visas, something that the Leader of the Opposition wants to bring back.

The overriding control you having immigration is how many visas you issue. In terms of the concept of record highs on that input, it has only happened twice in Australian history that a Minister for Home Affairs or immigration is issued more than 9 million visas. It has only happened twice. It was not myself as minister and not my predecessors. Who possibly would have issued more than 9 million visas two consecutive years? Know what else is caught up with this record.