On Sunday, Dutton declined to reaffirm the commitment in an interview with Sky News, pointing instead to his plans for reducing permanent migration, without confirming numbers for net overseas migration.
“What we’ve said is that we want our migration program to step down in the first two years,” he said. “It will ramp up again in years three and four, and we will bring down the numbers who come through the humanitarian and refugee program, back to the long-run average of that.
“That’s what will work for our country. Again, we’ll have a look at the economic settings, as we said at the time of the policy announcement.”