British populist politician Nigel Farage says Australia is on the right track when it comes to controlling who does - and doesn't - enter the country.
His UK Independence Party (Ukip) wants Britain to adopt an Australian-style visa system to reduce the number of unskilled workers coming from Europe and boost the number of Commonwealth professionals in the country.
Under Ukip's plan, unveiled on Wednesday by the party leader, current rules allowing European Union citizens to work in the UK - and vice versa - would be abolished.
"What we want to do is change our relationship with the European Union, take back control of our borders and put in place a positive immigration policy," Mr Farage said in central London.
"By that I mean we want an Australian-style points system to decide who comes to live, work and settle in this country.
"We're asking to do what normal countries all over the world do."
Australia's skilled migration visas are only eligible to people who pass a points test based on age, English language skills, previous employment and education.
Mr Farage said the party's opponents were wrong to characterise Ukip as a "narrow, small-minded, nasty group of people".
Rather Ukip was, its leader insisted, "probably the most open, inclusive and eclectic party in British politics".
But Mr Farage said it had been a "big mistake" to open up Britain's borders to 10 former communist countries.
There was now an open door to half-a-billion people, he said.
"I don't blame any young people that want to leave those countries and come to Britain to better their lives.
"My concern is the impact that it's had on British workers and British families here."
The member of the European parliament said unskilled workers kept wages down and only benefited the very rich who wanted cheaper nannies, chauffeurs and gardeners.
Ukip wants to control the quantity and quality of immigrants "focusing on highly-skilled migrants and our Commonwealth friends as opposed to the low-skilled Eastern European migration", Mr Farage said.
"We want to do as the Australians do.
"We want sensible, controlled numbers of people to come to this country."
Under Ukip's plan those who qualify would be granted a five-year visa. During that time they couldn't claim UK benefits and would have to take out health insurance.
After five years they could apply for permanent leave to remain.
Chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday accused Mr Farage of "making it up as he goes along".
"One moment he is talking about a cap and then he ditches it live on air which is a novel approach to policy-making," the Tory MP said.
Labour used Question Time to attack Prime Minister David Cameron for failing to deliver on his pre-election pledge to cut net migration to less than 100,000 a year.
It was almost 300,000 over the 12 months to September 2014.
Net migration into Australia in 2013/14 was 213,000. Some 28 per cent of Australia's population were born overseas.
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