Subjects: Visit to Forde; the Prime Minister’s cost of living crisis; third time unlucky for Australians: the Albanese Government’s big-taxing and big-spending budget; the Coalition’s plan for getting Australia back on track; Labor’s Big Australia policy; home ownership – restoring the Australian dream under a Coalition Government; nuclear energy.
E&OE
BERT VAN MANEN:
Good morning and welcome to the electorate of Forde. Can I thank Peter Dutton for joining me this morning here, and also Senator Jane Hume.
We’ve been here this morning talking to local constituents about the matters that are important to them: whether it’s cost of living, housing, concerns about energy prices, all of the things that we’ve been talking about and showing that the Government today is not dealing with these issues for locals here in the community of Forde.
We’ve heard from people about the impact on losing the ability to take their kids to sport, having to go to a food bank rather than to Woolies or Coles to buy their groceries. All of these issues, the Government failed to deal with in last week’s Budget. In contrast, the Budget In Reply speech delivered by Peter on Thursday night, I think gives Australians hope. We’ve heard that this morning upstairs in the questions that people have asked. The fact that we’ve been able to give them some solid answers to their concerns and that is what the Coalition is all about – providing solutions to people’s problems and giving them hope for the future. I’d like to hand over to Jane.
SENATOR JANE HUME:
Thanks, Bert. It’s terrific to be here in Forde today. Bert’s right: the messages we’ve been hearing today have been of people really doing it tough. Australians have seen their disposable income go backwards 7.5 per cent in the last two years. It’s becoming increasingly clear that people are poorer under Labor. The Labor Government’s had three opportunities now to deliver a Budget that delivers on its promise prior to the election, that delivers a solution for people that are crying out for help from their Government, but they’ve once again failed to do so.
The Coalition set the Government three tests. Those tests were to lower inflation and maintain our standard of living, restore our standard of living from the period prior to the election, to restore the fiscal guardrails around the budget that have been the hallmark of Coalition budgets from decades prior. Things like a tax to GDP ratio and making sure that your spending doesn’t exceed economic growth; and most importantly, a clear pathway back to structural surplus, not just relying on windfall gains; and finally, restoring opportunity and a sense of hope and prosperity to all Australians for the future.
This Government failed on all three accounts. Rather than delivering policies that would genuinely bring down the cost of living, that would genuinely tame inflation, instead, they provided a sugar hit which potentially may see interest rates stay higher for longer. It’s not just the Coalition saying it, it’s every credible economist out there, every media commentator.
This Government has failed to deliver on what is most important to Australians. Instead, they’re delivering $13.7 billion in subsidies to billionaires in the mining industry and in the hydrogen industry. Well, I don’t know how much further out of touch you can be. These industries do very well on their own, and they’re in very high-demand sectors. Quite frankly, if you’re giving big money to big business, doing big mining for big billionaires, rather than the little guy who is crying out, that is doing it tough, well, then this Government has had failed policies and the wrong priorities. It’s time to get Australia back on track.
PETER DUTTON:
Jane, thank you very much.
Bert, firstly to you, thank you very much for having us today. We started off talking to a young couple about how hard it was – even though they were both working – for them to save a deposit whilst they were paying a big rent, and they just can’t get into housing. It’s just getting more and more expensive. I think that’s a story of literally millions of Australians at the moment. The Government’s made decisions over the course of three budgets now where they’ve made it harder, not easier, for families and small businesses.
We know that the Government has a homegrown inflation problem. They keep spending and inflation keeps going up. Under this Government, people have had interest rates rise on 12 occasions. Every credible economic commentator after last Tuesday night’s budget has indicated that this is a Budget that puts pressure on inflation, not releases it. Unless the Reserve Bank Governor can get inflation back into that bandwidth, she’s not going to reduce interest rates any time soon. I want rates to come down as quickly as possible, which is why you need to elect a Coalition Government at the next election. Interest rates are always lower under a Coalition Government than they are under a Labor Government. Historically, that’s been the case, and certainly it’s the case right now.
I want to make sure that we can get our country back on track. I want to help families and make sure that we have an environment that sees people employed where they’ve got meaningful jobs that lead to home ownership. I don’t want to see people, wherever possible, going into retirement without owning at least a fair slab of their own home and making sure that they’ve got a retirement that can give them a dignity and help them provide a very significant asset to their children when they pass away. These aren’t huge asks. I think most Australians would expect their Government to deliver it, but unfortunately, over the course of the last three budgets, we’ve seen decisions that the Government’s made, which have made it harder – for example, in relation to migration.
The Prime Minister is bringing in 1.67 million people over five years. That’s bigger than the population of Adelaide. Now, there’s no planning being done around infrastructure. In fact, this Government took money away from infrastructure, and there’s nothing to provide support to first home buyers or to increase supply in the Government’s housing policy. Our policy of making sure that you can bring migration numbers back so that Australians can get into homes, means that we create or free up 40,000 homes in the first year and over 100,000 homes over the course of the policy. I believe that that is what the Australians one.
We’ve been around the country working day and night over the last two years. We’ve listened to Australians and we’ve responded accordingly. People are concerned about housing and people are worried about how they’re going to save a deposit. They’re worried about how they can even find rental accommodation, and in our country at the moment, we’ve got way too many people living in cars, in tents, and that is not something that we should accept in this country.
We also made an announcement last Thursday night that we want to put about $400 million into general practice because we want more doctors, more GPs out in the suburbs and out in regional areas. If we do that, it means that we can reduce the number of presentations to emergency departments, it means that we can help elderly people, either through home visits or being able to more easily access a GP, and putting that money into general practice and into health will help increase the bulk billing rates, because bulk billing under this Government has dropped by 11 percentage points – much lower when the Coalition was in government. We need to make sure that we make that investment into health.
I’m very happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, how much will your cuts to migration cost the economy? The Treasurer is claiming it’s going to be in the billions.
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, if the Treasurer is saying that the economy can only function with migration numbers at an historic high, and that the price of that is people not being able to find a home, then I don’t sign up to Jim Chalmers’ form of voodoo economics.
Let’s be very clear about it.
I believe very strongly that there is enormous economic growth in what we’ve proposed, because Australians are much wealthier if they’re able to buy their own home and see the price of that home appreciate over time. As we know, there are millions of Australians at the moment who are struggling to get into homes, whether it’s rental accommodation, or homes that they want to purchase, and ultimately that is a loss of billions of dollars’ worth of wealth in their own individual circumstances, collectively. I believe very strongly that we’ve got a policy which is well-calibrated, it’ll see growth continue, but you’ve got a Treasurer at the moment who’s willing to sacrifice homes for Australians, because he’s got a migration programme to prop up a failed Budget.
QUESTION:
When will you announce the details of your nuclear policy?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, in due course. We’ve been very clear about that.
QUESTION:
If there’s so much support for it or if there is support for it in the communities that you’ve sounded it out with, what’s the [inaudible]?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, has the Government announced all of their policies for the next election? Of course they haven’t. So, I’d hardly take advice from the Prime Minister or Jim Chalmers on when our policy should be released.
QUESTION:
David Littleproud confirmed the Coalition has been polling electorates where nuclear power plants are proposed to be built. When are you going to be announcing these electorates?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’d just refer you back to my previous answer.
I guess the focus for now is on how we can help Australians get into housing. The Government is forcing people out of homes, and we can’t abide a situation where you bring in a population bigger than Adelaide in a five-year period, and not have homes for them.
The Treasurer is out there saying that he wants builders to build homes for international students. I want builders to build homes for Australian citizens, and I want to make sure that young kids who have the home ownership aspiration that their parents and grandparents did, I want them to believe that again. It will only be a Coalition Government that can deliver home ownership. This Prime Minister has presided over a migration programme which has made it nearly impossible to rent or buy a home.
The Prime Minister’s brought in almost a million people over the last two years alone – that is the highest migration rate in our country’s history – and yet only 265,000 homes built, and we wonder why we’ve got a housing crisis, a housing emergency. I want to get our country back on track. I want to make sure that we can build the homes of the future. I want to make sure that we can help young people get into homes more quickly. And I want to make sure that they can achieve their lifetime dream of homeownership, and it will happen under a Government that I lead. It’s not going to happen under the Labor Party because they’re trying to please inner city Greens and people on the Left. They’ve forgotten about people in the suburbs and in regional areas, and I’m going to make sure that our Government, when we win the next election, can see people back into housing more quickly.
We are a great country for migration, we have been, I think, one of the greatest success stories in the world in terms of our migration programmes, but it needs to be balanced and well-calibrated. If not, you get the situation where Australians can’t find a home to live in – and that’s exactly what’s happened under Prime Minister Albanese.
QUESTION:
Back to nuclear. Are you looking at compensating residents where you’re planning to build these reactors? What sort of ideas are being considered?
PETER DUTTON:
Again, our policies will be announced in due course.
QUESTION:
Are you comfortable with the $450 million being spent on private jets to, sorry are they defence jets, to fly around the Prime Minister and other dignitaries?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, we haven’t had a briefing from the Government yet as to how the money is being paid up front, as opposed to a lease arrangement and why that arrangement is better. Obviously, the Prime Minister, the Governor-General – like any developed country – have an aircraft to fly around in. We’re a big country, but we need to understand the costings and the Government hasn’t provided that briefing to us as yet. So, we’ll ask for that or there will be questions at Senate Estimates.
QUESTION:
You said net overseas migration should be reduced to 160,000. How will this be done aside from reducing international students and the permanent migration intake?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it will be done through a combination of things. One is that we propose to reduce the permanent intake back to 140,000 in year one and two. We gradually increase that to 150,000 in year three and 160,000 in year four. In relation to the refugee and humanitarian programme, the Government’s dramatically ramped that number up. Our proposal is to bring it back to 13,750 a year, which is closer to the long-run average, and it will also still make us one of the most generous countries in the world on a per-capita basis.
In relation to international students, I’ll just give you the example of University of Sydney and tell me whether this is fair: University of Sydney has 47 per cent of students on campus who are international students. Now, I don’t have any problem with international students, but I want homes in our country to be taken up first by Australian citizens and by Australian students and elderly Australians who are at the moment are living in the back of a car or living in a tent. I want to make sure that Australians can get into those homes, and the Prime Minister is presiding over a migration programme – the biggest in our country’s history – 1.67 million people over five years, and almost a million people to 265,000 homes built in the last two years. It’s not sustainable, and the problem is going to continue to compound each year.
So, yes, we have to bring back the number of international students. At the University of Sydney, as I say, 47 per cent of students who are international, they made $1.4 billion last year. They want to bring more students in, but they’re not building accommodation and they’re not providing housing for those students, and young Australians are missing out on that housing. Get the housing picture right first. Get the infrastructure picture right first – instead of taking money out of infrastructure, as Anthony Albanese has done – he’s just compounding the problem even more. We have to make sure that our migration programme continues to be one of the best in the world, and that’s what a Liberal government will do.
QUESTION:
Besides those international students, who else will it be? Will it be skilled workers? Will be family visas? Have you got some more detail?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, all of that comes in, as we’ve outlined in our policy, the three main streams that I’ve just spoken about, the international students, and the cap that we’ll place there, will bring the NOM back quite significantly. All of that is obvious. The outrage from the usual suspects about, ‘why are you proposing to cut the migration programme?’, because I’m putting Australians first. That’s why.
I want to make sure that our migration programme works for our country, not against the interests of our country. I have demonstrated to the Australian people that I will stand up for our country and make the decisions that are right for the Australian people and that’s exactly what we’ve done in relation to this policy.
I want to see young homeowners realise their dream again, not be stuck in a rental roundabout, or not be stuck couch-surfing, or stuck at home forever because I don’t believe that they’ll ever be able to afford a home. That’s the reality under Anthony Albanese. It won’t be the reality under a government that we lead after the election.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
[ends]