The Morrison government has announced it will cap permanent migration at 160,000 for the next four years.

23,000 of those people will be required to settle in regional areas for three years if they want to gain permanent residency.

“That’ll help take the pressure off Sydney and Melbourne in particular, where people are really feeling that congestion pressure,” Immigration Minister David Coleman told Tom Elliott.

Tom was skeptical about the government’s ability to “force” somebody to live outside of Melbourne or Sydney.

“If they can’t demonstrate that they’ve stayed and worked in regional Australia for those three years, they won’t get permanent residency,” Mr Coleman said.

He also explained that $7 million would be invested in compliance to make sure that happened.

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