London: Australia's immigration system is being championed as the model to replace Britain's open-door policy for Europeans, a move prominent Leave campaigners say would ease the movement of Australians into the country should they win the   June 23 referendum.
Former London   Mayor Boris Johnson and Cabinet Minster Michael Gove, who are leading the Vote Leave campaign, promised the Conservatives would create a "genuine Australian-style points based immigration system," by the next general election due which is due in 2020.  
The radical change would mean citizens of EU countries like Romania and Bulgaria would no longer be automatically allowed entry to live and work in the UK.
"Those seeking entry for work or study should be admitted on the basis of their skills without discrimination on the ground of nationality," Vote Leave said.
"We could then create fairness between EU citizens and others, including those from Commonwealth countries."
The change would favour Australians who are currently being deported from the UK if they earn below &pound;35,000 ($70,000) per year, as part of a Government attempt to curb soaring migrant numbers.  
Net migration to the UK is currently running at 300,000 which is well over the government's target of 100,000.  Net migration from EU countries is 184,000 which is just short of the total for the 188,00 migrants from non-EU countries combined.
The Tory Member of the European Parliament representing Britain, Daniel Hannan, said forcing Australians out of the country because of the surge in EU migrants was "immoral."
"People with Australian passports are kicked out at the expiry of two years, or less now if they don't earn enough money in order to free up unlimited space for people who may have no connection to this country whatsoever," Mr Hannan told Fairfax Media after a public rally in Hammersmith.
"I think that's immoral, I also think its makes no economic sense," he said.
Australians commonly work in the UK as nurses and teachers.  The median wage for a nurse is &pound;23.019 ($46,000) meaning under the new rules, they would be kicked out of the country.   Australia's High Commissioner to London, former foreign minister Alexander Downer, recently criticised the "entrenched government policy."
He tweeted a response to the Leave campaign's new policy.
#Australia's immigration points system plus family reunions and refugee resettlement brings in nearly 200k migrants pa. total pop 24 million
??? Alexander Downer (@AusHCUK)      June 1, 2016
Mr Hannan said it was no way to treat a country that had come to Britain's aid in the first and second world wars.
"I think we should remember who our best and oldest friends are, look at the size of the war memorials in Australia, on two occasions in the last hundred years Australians came in huge numbers when we were most in need, to help us."
"One of the first things I would like to see after we've left is a free movement area with Australia and New Zealand," he said.
The right-wing offshoot party UKIP first proposed moving to an Australian-style immigration system in 2014, before Britain's last general election in which Prime Minister David Cameron was emphatically returned, despite polling predicting a loss or hung parliament.
UKIP Leader Nigel Farage is leading a rival Grassroots Out campaign.
Pleased that Boris Johnson & Michael Gove now support same policy I've advocated for years #Brexitpic.twitter.com/n4ZDgicOPf
??? Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage)      May 31, 2016
UKIP's only member for Parliament Douglas Carswell told Fairfax Media the open-door policy for Europeans was a "crazy system" and "blind discrimination" against non-Europeans.
"I think we should have the right to do what they do in Australia which is to decide who comes, with what skills and if we had a managed migration system we could do what they do in Australia so wonderfully, we could make first and second generation Brits the way you make first and second generation Australians," he said.
"But at the moment we're stuck in this absurd situation where we saying no to Doctors from India, to soccer engineers from Singapore because we can't say no to people with no skills.
The Dutch Prime Minister warned Britain such a move would see EU nations retaliate and told the BBC it would start a "race to the bottom."
All Commonwealth citizens living in the UK are allowed to vote in the   June 23 referendum, which the most recent opinion polls say could go either way.
Mr Hannan urged the estimated 87,000 Australians living in the UK to vote in the   June 23 referendum.
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