A Fairfax-Ipsos poll of 1200 people found the number of respondents who agreed they wanted immigration reduced “by a lot or a little” was just a few percentage points lower than those who wanted immigration to stay the same or increase.

However, fewer people see immigration as a top issue, with more people nominating cost of living, healthcare, crime, the economy and housing as more important.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association Wagga Base Hospital branch president Amit Gupta said reducing immigration would mean more difficulty in recruiting health workers in Wagga and less education funding.

“A lot of the workforce is from overseas, which is a support mechanism for nurses in rural hospitals,” he said.

“Apart from that, the economy will definitely be impacted and universities are relying on immigrants because if they are not citizens or permanent residents, they are paying their fees upfront.”

Wagga mayor Greg Conkey said close to 60 per cent of new Wagga residents were born overseas. 

“Our growth is dependent, I think, on migrants; people who were born overseas,” he said.

“It’s not just for Wagga as that would apply to a lot of other regional communities.”

The idea of reducing Australia’s immigration intake has supporters both in Labor and the Coalition.

In March, then NSW Labor leader Luke Foley backed former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott’s call for a review of immigration, including a cut to total numbers.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is reportedly looking to slash the yearly intake by up to 30,000 people, which would be the first cut since 2010.

The current yearly intake is 190,000, equivalent to 0.75 per cent of the total population. 

Wagga Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party candidate Seb McDonagh said governments had used migration policy as a tool to support economic growth, but now infrastructure had been overwhelmed in the major cities.

“Personally, I would support an independent review into Australia’s migration intake,” he said.

Mr McDonagh said immigration was more of a concern for suburban Melbourne and Sydney than in places like Wagga, where jobs were needed to encourage new people.

According to the 2016 Census, 84.1 per cent of people in the Wagga council area were born in Australia, with most migrants coming from England, India, the Philippines, New Zealand and China.

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