By Zac de Silva and Tess Ikonomou in Canberra
Australia would restrict the availability of welfare to foreigners should the coalition win the next federal election, under a plan that would also reduce the migrant intake in a bid to ease housing pressure.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor will deliver his first budget reply speech on Thursday evening, unveiling a dramatic cut to the number of people allowed into the country.
Speaking ahead of his address, Mr Taylor said the coalition would claw back billions in savings by cutting welfare for non-citizens.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme would be for Australians only, and grandfathered for those already on it.
“We have got, right now, a government that is slashing support for private health insurance for older Australians, and at the same time dishing out billions and billions of dollars to people in this country who are not citizens for welfare,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“That’s not fair on hard-working Australian citizens. That’s not fair on people who have committed to this country for many years … and the simple principle is this, if you commit to this country, we’ll commit to you.”
Mr Taylor in his speech will say Australia should only bring in as many people as it can house.
“Under Labor, migration has run miles ahead of housing and that puts pressure on rents, house prices and on every young Australian trying to get ahead,” he will say.
Under Mr Taylor’s plan, a limit would be placed on net overseas migration, equivalent to the number of homes built in the previous year.
Net overseas migration is the difference between the number of people arriving in Australia and the number of departures, and also includes temporary migrants like foreign students.
Tuesday’s budget forecasts the figure at 295,000 for this financial year, dropping to 225,000 by 2027/28.
That’s well below the post-pandemic high of more than 550,000, when a flood of migrants re-entered the country as borders reopened, but still higher than pre-COVID levels.
Last financial year, around 175,000 new homes were built. If Mr Taylor’s policy were implemented, that would mean a cut to net migration of about 40 per cent for this financial year.
The opposition leader will also seek to challenge Pauline Hanson’s One Nation on migration after its win over the Liberals in the Farrer by-election, leaning into populist right-wing rhetoric around “mass migration”.
His budget reply speech sets up a fight with Labor over housing policy, after the federal government revealed plans to scrap tax concessions for property investors in a bid to help more young people buy a home.
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has downplayed the impact of Labor’s proposed tax changes on rent prices, defending the move as fairness for first-home buyers.
“I’m not pretending everything is going to get fixed tomorrow or this weekend, but there will be a difference at auctions this weekend,” she told ABC TV.
“These changes will mean that there will be just a bit fewer investors at every auction, and that puts that younger person who is trying to get into their first home in a better position.”
The coalition has promised to repeal the changes if it wins the next election.
News all day, every day at CityNews.com.au.
Who can be trusted?
In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.
If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.
Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.
Thank you,
Ian Meikle, editor
Leave a Reply