Australia's permanent migration system is incoherent, inefficient and in parts unlawful.

It delivers few new skilled workers while being clogged with family visas that, by law, should not be capped at all.

Meanwhile, temporary migrants - students, graduates and working holidaymakers - carry the real weight of supplying skilled labour, yet are undervalued.

However, the migration program is simultaneously presented to the public as both "capped" and "demand-driven"- a contradiction that undermines its credibility.

It needs two fundamental reforms: recognising the central role of temporary migrants in the skilled workforce, and separating skilled migration from family migration while redefining migration as primarily about skills, not family reunion.

Public perception often assumes tha

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