Subjects: Labor’s embarrassing international nuclear snub; Labor’s energy policy shambles; Labor’s international student cap mess; the Coalition’s plan to revive the home ownership dream and boost building across Australia; Labor’s Big Australia policy; electoral reform; Labor’s cost of living crisis; Labor’s continuing immigration and visa shambles; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership.
E&OE.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you very much for being here today. I’ll just make a couple of comments and then I’m happy to take some questions.
Look, it’s clear to every Australian now that the Albanese Government is a disaster here in Australia and they’re now an embarrassment overseas as well. We’ve got Chris Bowen, who is at COP29, and frankly, is an embarrassment for our country.
We know that the US and the UK expected Australia to sign up to the nuclear agreement. We know that at COP28 there were 31 countries who signed up to a tripling of energy derived from zero emissions nuclear technology. Australia is starting to become an international embarrassment under Chris Bowen and Mr Albanese.
Now, I believe that Peter Malinauskas and others, the adults within the Labor Party, need to stand up – as they did in relation to the under-age kids and age verification issue online – and try and provide some direction for a directionless Prime Minister.
Australian families at the moment are paying some of the highest energy costs in the world and under Mr Albanese’s energy policy the prices are going to continue to go up and up. There’s going to be blackouts and there is going to be a reduction in manufacturing and output in our country. I think that much is obvious to everyone. So, when Canada says, when Prime Minister Trudeau says, that emissions can’t be achieved without the nuclear technology, which is a zero emissions technology – we can’t achieve the outcomes that we want for our economy or for the environment without nuclear power.
We know that the Government’s policy is costing more than five times the $120 billion that they projected that it would. That’s a $500 billion black hole – and I think that’s a conservative estimate. The Government still hasn’t provided any advice whatsoever to suggest that there is a lack of credibility in Frontier Economics, who is one of the pre-eminent economists in this space.
So, I think the Government has a train wreck problem here when it comes to their energy policy and we’ve now got Chris Bowen internationally, who is embarrassing us with our international partners and our closest allies in the United States and the United Kingdom, both of them left of centre Governments. Let’s be very clear about it.
I wanted to make some comments also in relation to the ESOS bill that’s before the Parliament, the student cap bill, so-called.
We were very clear in my budget reply speech that we were going to reduce by 25 per cent the permanent programme and the numbers in the humanitarian programme. We would do that for two years – so, bring it back to about 140,000 in year one and year two and then going up to 150 and 160,000. That would create 40,000 homes and it would help with the Government’s housing crisis that they’ve created. You can’t bring in 1.67 million people over five years without any planning for it. This Government’s ‘Big Australia’ policy, which is forcing Australians out of homes, wasn’t something the Australian public voted on or gave a mandate to at or before the last election.
So, we are in favour of a reduction in the number of international students – given the housing crisis at the moment – we’ve been clear about that, and we’ll make further announcements in relation to what that looks like. But what we’ve got in this bill at the moment – and let’s be very clear about this and I’d just encourage you to go back and have a look at the numbers instead of the Government’s spin here – what they’ve done is baked in a benefit to the G8 based on a 2023 base year. Okay? So, it’s at a record high and they’re baking that in, save one or two per cent reduction.
It’s a disaster across the rest of the sector and we’re not going to support a bill which creates a bigger mess of the Government’s making on top of what they’ve already done. So, we believe, as I’ve said before, depending on the economic conditions at the time, we’ll set the NOM according to that and according to the mess that we inherit from this Government. That’s the approach that we’ll take.
Happy to take questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, you said you’re committed to a reduction in the number of international students. Are you still committed to a firm cap on the number of students allowed in?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, we’re happy for there to be a cap and for there to be a reduction because I want Australian kids to get into housing. I don’t want to see people 40-and-50-deep for rental accommodation. I don’t want to see young families who are putting off having kids because they can’t afford a house or because they’re renting and they can’t afford to save a deposit at the same time. This Government has created a huge mess. But saying that or pretending to you that there is a cap of any meaning in place when you bake in the 2023 figures – look at what Mark Scott’s done at the University of Sydney; in one year, they made $1.4 billion. Whilst the University of Sydney, through international students made $1.4 billion, Australian families can’t find rental accommodation.
Our plan, as we’ve pointed out before, creates 40,000 homes straight away. That’s why I’m not going to support the latest thought bubble of the Albanese Government. I am going to support a reduction in numbers which helps young Australians into housing.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, are you now personally involved in negotiations on the electoral spending and donation bill? And what changes are you asking Labor to make?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the Prime Minister’s raised the issue with me, as you know, and there’s a negotiation going on at the moment on the bill that the Government’s put before the House. If there’s an agreement reached, or we have an announcement to make in relation to that, we’ll do it in due course.
QUESTION:
Back to migration, Mr Dutton, we don’t know all the details of your plan yet, so you kind of can’t assert that you’re going to do a better job than Labor when we don’t actually know yet what you’re going to do. And secondly, what do you say to the charge you’ve actually gone soft on cracking down on migration, given that you will not support Labor’s bill?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, I’m either too soft or too hard or too much in the middle – I don’t know! I mean, what’s Labor’s line here? All they’re doing at the moment is throwing out personal attacks. I think what the last two years, 18 months has demonstrated, is that the more the Labor Party attack me personally, the higher my numbers go. I’m happy for that to continue because what we’re arguing…
QUESTION:
On the detail, Mr Dutton, when will we know the detail?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ll deal with that. What we’re dealing with here is a policy that is before us in the Senate at the moment. It’s a dog’s breakfast – let’s be honest about it. It bakes in, as I say, a benefit on the G8. Why? Because it’s a unionised workforce. That’s what the Government’s done. If you go back to the figures of 2020 or pre-COVID 2019, 2018, have a look at those figures of the G8 compared to where it is today. So what the Government’s doing under their so-called cap, is baking in a benefit to the bigger universities. Mark Scott made $1.4 billion in one year, and the Government essentially is baking in that opportunity for the University of Sydney and the other seven, and that’s not something that we’re going to support.
QUESTION:
Sorry, is your intention to amend this bill, and to make it better?
PETER DUTTON:
No. I just don’t think you can make such a bad bill better. We will announce our caps and our reductions in due course, as I’ve said.
We announced a 25 per cent reduction in the migration intake – in the permanent programme, and a reduction in the humanitarian programme. We believe that the number of international students is too high. We think the Government has created an onshore disaster in terms of the number of people who are applying for protection. People are doing that, we’re told, because it’s a low application fee and it means that people will not have their matters resolved for about seven years. So, you get work rights for seven years, which is why the NOM figures are blowing out, because they can’t – when people are at the end of their student courses – they’re not leaving. So, the Government has created one hell of a mess here. We will clean it up, as we’ll clean up the economy. We’ll get our country back on track and we’ll make further announcements in this regard in due course.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, Jason Clare says that the bill allows the Government of the day to set the cap. If that’s the case, why not let them have a crack before you get the opportunity?
PETER DUTTON:
I’ve been clear about our position. We’re not supporting a bad bill that bakes in a benefit to a university that can make $1.4 billion a year, whilst Australians can’t afford to pay rent.
I just don’t think people realise how much pressure families are under at the moment. People can’t pay their mortgages, people can’t pay their insurance bill, there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence around at the moment of people who are going without their home insurance or motor vehicle insurance because they can’t afford to pay their insurance as well as their mortgage or to put food on the table. You speak to the Salvos and others, people are lining up. The working poor under this Government are lining up for food packages, because two partners in a relationship working can’t pay the bills under the Albanese Government.
I just think we have to recognise that the Government is creating a lot of angst and concern in the community and this is the latest example of it.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, what happens in the reality of this process is you’re going to eventually announce a policy that you’ll potentially take to an election, in the meantime, you will have the current student numbers as they are. So you are delaying a reduction in migration, aren’t you?
PETER DUTTON:
This problem can be solved with a change of Government at the next election. Okay?
QUESTION:
But that’s potentially May next year. This is something that’s on the table now.
PETER DUTTON:
I don’t think it’s going to be May next year. This can be solved by voting in a competent Government. A competent Government will not get our country into the mess that the Albanese Government’s got us into. A competent Coalition Government after the next election will not be an international embarrassment on the world stage. We will have an energy system which is in alignment with our partners, and it will be to the benefit of our country. It will reduce emissions, it will keep the lights on, it will develop more, not less business opportunity in our country, which means more jobs. We will always have interest rates lower under a Coalition Government than a Labor Government, because we manage the economy more effectively and more successfully, and we’re not going to have a situation where universities are making $1.4 billion a year, meaning that those students who are here under that money making project are taking up rental accommodation in particular from Australians who can’t get into rental accommodation. That is not something that we’re going to have, and in terms of the Government, the Government can clean up its own mess – that’s what I’d say to the Government.
QUESTION:
Just in terms of what you said just before about students are staying on at the end of their visa, would you be seeking to deport people who stay here after they’ve studied?
PETER DUTTON:
Look, if people are in breach of their visa conditions, they can expect to be deported.
Look at what Tony Burke’s done or what he hasn’t done in relation to 501 cancellations. Do we think that there are less rapes being committed? Or less domestic violence? Or less sexual assault? Or less drug dealing? Or less drug trafficking?
QUESTION:
Are you saying international students have been doing these things?
PETER DUTTON:
I’m saying if you look at the mess of the migration portfolio, there are many elements to it.
If you look at the release of criminals from immigration detention – who are not refugees, who are people who are here who have committed offences against Australian citizens – every element of the migration portfolio is being mismanaged, and it was from day one when Anthony Albanese had his captain’s pick of Minister Giles. That guy is a walking disaster, and I feel a bit for Tony Burke because he’s still cleaning up the mess that Minister Giles bequeathed him. But that’s his problem.
QUESTION:
When it comes to the bill before the Senate doesn’t bake in the numbers, it just creates the mechanism for capping student numbers. So what’s wrong with that, if that’s what you want to do anyway? Isn’t it better to have it in place? And secondly, if you think that the Go8’s numbers are still set too high, what do you think is the appropriate level of student intake for Go8 universities?
PETER DUTTON:
I think I’ve addressed the first part. We’ll make our announcement in relation to the composition of the programme, and that will depend on the economic conditions, it will depend on how much more damage Labor has done, and we’ll make that announcement.
QUESTION:
Will it be deeper cuts than the 2023 levels?
PETER DUTTON:
We’ll make that announcement in due course. There will be deeper cuts because I want housing for Australians. Okay? I’ve been very clear about that. We’ve said that we will reduce the permanent programme by 25 per cent, and we will do that because I want to create housing for Australians at the moment who can’t afford housing.
QUESTION:
My memory of student accommodation back in the day was that’s not the kind of place families would want to live. Are you really suggesting that one is swapable for the other? As in you would get ordinary Australian families, who are looking for homes, into what is otherwise student accommodation?
PETER DUTTON:
I think if you’re a student at the University of Sydney, paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for a course, you probably haven’t come from the background that you and I came from, and I remember university days probably in a similar way to you, where we didn’t come from family money. There are plenty of international students in pretty schmick accommodation. Let’s be frank about it. Now, there will be other students, from other parts of the world, who are scrimping and saving every dollar to send their kids here and they’re in less salubrious accommodation. But there is accommodation to be taken up at the moment by international students, who I believe very strongly are taking up accommodation that should be occupied by Australian citizens.
If the Prime Minister is too weak and too insipid to deal with it, if the Prime Minister can’t make decisions that are in our country’s best interests – I will – and we will make the decisions that are necessary to solve the housing crisis that Labor’s created by bringing in 1.67 million people over five years, and we will get our country back on track.
Alright? Thank you very much.
[ends]