South Australia’s Premier has declared the country has a “housing crisis” not a “migration crisis”, as his federal Labor colleagues continue to squabble over a long-awaited policy to reduce the overall number of overseas arrivals.
Appearing at an event in regional New South Wales, Premier Peter Malinauskas said that in his own state there were not enough young people to replace those retiring from the workforce, so migration was crucial.
“If you accept that we need the labour, we don’t have a migration crisis. We’ve got a housing crisis,” he told the National Bush Summit in Dubbo.
“I think the debate that we’re having around migration in the country is self-defeating, and I worry it will represent a big opportunity cost because we’ll be turning away economic projects.”
The popular state Labor leader, who won a convincing re-election victory earlier this year and is often touted as a future Prime Minister, argued all effort should be put into expanding Australia’s housing supply.
“That means the Commonwealth and the States doing everything we can. I’m pulling every lever at our disposal”, the SA Premier said as his call to focus on housing supply was met with loud claps and cheers from the regional audience.
Earlier at the summit the Prime Minister also launched a passionate defence of skilled migration and said the government’s long-awaited policy on how to reduce the overall number of overseas arrivals would target those who game the system.
During his appearance Anthony Albanese was jeered while talking about renewable energy and quizzed on reports his government was slashing the annual refugee quota next financial year from 20,000 to 13,750, in response to One Nation’s rise.
“No, we’re responding to the fact that post-COVID, when our borders were shut, there was always going to be a spike, and there was a spike in net overseas migration. We’ve reduced that by 45 per cent,” Mr Albanese responded.
“There’s two ways you can control that overseas migration. One is people coming here see you control those numbers. Secondly, is though people who have lost their entitlement to be here, getting them to leave, that can be more difficult”.
“Our priority and what we’re really looking at as well is people who game the system. So people who can come in and they can put in an appeal and continue to put in another appeal and go through”.
Earlier this month, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was forced to postpone an announcement on the Albanese government’s migration policy following a reported cabinet split.
Labor sources have told The Nightly there is still strong debate among senior ministers over the details of the overhaul, including concerns that reducing arrivals could hurt the government in certain electorates and slow economic growth.
Budget projections unveiled in May confirm the government is aiming to reduce net overseas migration to 225,000 in 2027-28, although the details of how this will be achieved are not yet finalised.
The Prime Minister also talked up the importance of continuing skilled migration to Australia when asked about the allocation of federal funding for health services in the bush.
“It’s one of the reasons why skilled migration does matter. You take away the Irish nurses and Nepalese workers in ancillary roles working in hospitals, and we’ll have a real issue — particularly with training of doctors, nurses, etc.”
Challenged again over whether his government was abandoning his previous support for a higher refugee intake because of Pauline Hanson’s popularity, Mr Albanese insisted Labor was simply “responding to the national need”.
“Yeah, there is a current spike in the support for One Nation, quite clearly, but we’ve responded. We started lowering the numbers well before that occurred because we recognise that we want to get that right to assist the Australian economy.”
During the summit One Nation leader Pauline Hanson also faced off against Nationals Leader Matt Canavan, insisting the conservative side of politics should work together to defeat Labor.
“Our enemy now, and I’m telling you, who’s ruining this country is the Labor-Greens. That’s why we, as the conservative side, have to start working together,” Senator Hanson said.
Senator Hanson then confronted Senator Canavan to take her seriously, saying: “stop knocking me”.
Speaking in Dubbo, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also accused the Coalition’s opponents of advocating “all sorts of nonsense about immigration” and said the Labor Party had missed every one of its immigration targets.
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