Subjects: The Coalition’s plan for getting Australia back on track; Labor’s big Australia policy; home ownership – restoring the Australian dream; third time unlucky for Australians: the Albanese Government’s big-taxing and big-spending budget; nuclear energy.
E&OE
BEN FORDHAM:
Let’s go straight to the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who’s delivered his budget reply speech last night.
Peter Dutton, good morning.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Ben.
BEN FORDHAM:
Thank you very much for joining us.
PETER DUTTON:
My pleasure.
BEN FORDHAM:
How did it go down last night, you happy with what you delivered?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I think we stood up for what we believed in. We’ve demonstrated there’s a difference between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party at the next election. It reflects what we’ve heard as we’ve moved around the country. People are worried about cost of living, people are worried about the energy system, worried about higher electricity costs, worried about getting into a house and hopefully we reflected a lot of that last night.
BEN FORDHAM:
You’re proposing a two year ban on foreign residents purchasing existing homes. So how would that work?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, at the moment, as people know, it’s a pretty unfair arrangement where you’re in an auction bidding against somebody who has very deep pockets and somebody who’s not an Australian citizen. I think the priority for our housing should be Australian citizens. At the moment we’ve got a lot of people who are living in cars and tents, and the homeless rate is at the highest level it’s been under this Government, and I want to make sure that we can prioritise Australian housing for Australians.
BEN FORDHAM:
And are you suggesting that if the housing situation got under control, that there would only need to be a temporary measure?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah. So, what we propose is a reduction in the migration program. We’ve carefully looked at how you can do that. Now, big businesses will say, ‘oh, this is terrible for trying to find staff’. We’ve got 15 million people in this country of working age, 50,000 more have gone onto the unemployment queue under this Government; but we believe that we can get the skills that are needed from the Australian market. There’s an announcement last night as well around making it easier for veterans and pensioners to work a little bit longer so that their pension’s not lost, but they can get back into the workplace if that’s what they choose to do.
So there are lots of ways that you can make up for that. But ultimately, the Government’s bought in about 928,000 people over the last two years, and only 265,000 homes have been built. So, of course, they’ve created a crisis. Under our policy, we say that we can create or free up 100,000 homes. We could do that pretty quickly. And yes, it’s a temporary measure until you can decide that the problem’s dealt with and reinstate, or gradually build up to a higher number.
BEN FORDHAM:
And on the numbers of people coming into Australia, the last migration intake was about 500,000 in a year. So, you’re suggesting a big drop to that?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, and this is the point Ben; the Prime Minister keeps saying that ‘it’s too high, it’s got to drop’, but then when the next month’s figures come in, it continues to go up. So over five years, the Government will bring in 1.67 million people. Building approvals are an 11 year low. You can’t find a builder for love, nor money, as we know and you’ve got a situation where foreign students, say at University of Sydney, 47 per cent now of their student body are international students. International students are great, that’s fine, but we can’t have rental accommodation and housing taken up by non-citizens when our own citizens can’t find a roof to put over their head.
BEN FORDHAM:
So you’d drop it to 140,000 in a year?
PETER DUTTON:
There are a few different numbers floating around here. It’s a complicated space because you’re talking about net overseas migration, which is important and we drop that down to, on our proposal, 160,000. At the moment, as you say in the budget, the Government’s predicting 528,000 this year. They ramp it down, but again, pretty dodgy figures, by year three to about 260,000. So ours is 100,000 less than that.
But there are components that make it up. So there’s a permanent program, which we say should drop from 185,000 to 140,000. There’s the refugee and humanitarian program, which Labor’s ramped right up to 20,000. We say that that should be back to the long term average of about 13,750. That’s pretty much where it’s been. It’s an expensive program to run, but it would still make us, on a per capita basis, a very generous nation compared to many others.
BEN FORDHAM:
You slammed Chris Bowen’s renewables only energy policy, and you say we need to expand gas and introduce nuclear power. He’s responded by saying, ‘I’m living rent free in Peter Dutton’s head’.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just think Chris Bowen, if there was room in his own head for some sensible thought our country would be better off because he’s the person who had GroceryWatch, FuelWatch, he told people at the last election not to vote for, or at the 2019 election, not to vote for them if you weren’t happy with them. I hope that people remember that again at the next election. He’s presiding over this renewables only policy, which is driving up prices. What they’re proposing now is to spend $1.2 to $1.5 trillion, including 28,000 kilometres of new poles and wires.
I think he is taking our country on a disastrous path. If you look at the biggest economies in the world – and Australia is obviously in that G20 group – we are the only country that hasn’t adopted or hasn’t signed up to nuclear power as a zero emissions technology that can firm up renewables in the system and bring prices down. In Ontario in Canada, people are paying about a quarter of the price for electricity than many residents are here in Australia, and it’s because of nuclear energy. So, it’s safe, it can deliver cheaper electricity, consistent electricity, because we’re going to end up with blackouts and brownouts soon under Chris Bowen’s plan, and it’s greener energy as well.
BEN FORDHAM:
Just very quickly, when you are announcing the sites for the nuclear policy?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we’ve done a lot of work on it and we’ve said that we only are looking at sites where there’s an existing coal fired power station coming to end of life…
BEN FORDHAM:
Got that. When will you announce the locations?
PETER DUTTON:
Pretty shortly, Ben. I wanted the concentration last night to be on housing and immigration. We’ve done that, and we’ll sequence it, not according to the Labor Party’s timetable, according to our own.
BEN FORDHAM:
We appreciate you jumping on the line bright and early.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure mate. Take care
[ends]