Australia has announced dramatic cuts to the number of permanent migrants allowed to enter the country each year. It's also barring some new arrivals from living in the country's largest cities the next half-decade. Officials say it's aimed at easing congestion in cities. But critics say it's to sway a fast-approaching federal election. Greg Navarro reports from Sydney.

For Afghani refugee Ali, the decision to settle in the rural town of Griffith, where he now has his own business, was an easy one.

ALI AFGHAN REFUGEE "Here's very friendly. And also we can find easy job as well because the population's not too much."

Australia's government hopes that more new arrivals will take the same path to less populated towns under new changes to permanent migration. That includes cutting the country's annual migrant intake by about 30,000 people and providing incentives for some new arrivals and international students who choose rural areas over Australia's major cities.

GREG NAVARRO SYDNEY "The federal government says about 112,000 skilled migrants arrived in this country during the last financial year. More than 8 out of every 10 people settled here in Sydney or Melbourne."

The government argues that its major cities are struggling under rapid population growth impacting everything from public transportation to housing.

PROFESSOR JOCK COLLINS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "There is no doubt that we have substantial congestion, anyone who lives in Sydney realises that, or Melbourne."

University of Technology Sydney professor Jock Collins studies immigration and its impacts.

PROFESSOR JOCK COLLINS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "The problem is that the large immigration program over the last 7 decades hasn't been met by the public infrastructure investment."

And there are concerns that the new measures won't have much impact. The new cap on permanent migration is only 2,000 less than the number of permanent migrants who arrived here last year. And there doesn't appear to be any policies in place to ensure that people who initially move into rural centres remain there.

Much of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's election campaign recently has focused on being tough on border security, and stopping boats filled with people seeking asylum in Australia illegally.

University of Sydney political science lecturer Stewart Jackson says the attacks on two Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this month, which claimed 50 lives, has forced Australia's government to change its election focus.

STEWART JACKSON, LECTURER UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY "Post Christchurch becomes not possible to talk about holding those people away as somehow they are brown people who shouldn't be brought here, or words to those effects, you have this situation of oh, we can't talk about it in the context of white supremacy, we might be seen as very specifically racist, so we will talk about migration then and who comes to the country and what do we need here."

PROFESSOR JOCK COLLINS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY "It is a big issue and I think, particularly at the moment with the Trump populism and so forth, that people have been playing the immigration card for political reasons and Australia is no exception to that."

The new changes are set to take effect in July. Greg Navarro, CGTN, Sydney.