Coalition leader Angus Taylor has delivered his first budget reply, vowing to crack down on migration levels and prohibit non-citizens from accessing welfare payments. Critics say the coalition is blaming migrants for Australia's economic troubles, as Pauline Hanson's anti-immigrant One Nation accuses the opposition of copying their policies.
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TRANSCRIPT
Opposition leader Angus Taylor has delivered his first budget reply speech to parliament.
Announcing plans to focus on housing, migration and taxes, Mr Taylor says the coalition vision for Australia is fairer, freer, and better.
"An Australia where life is affordable. An Australia where we have cheap and abundant energy. An Australia where industries thrive and businesses boom. An Australia where we innovate, make, and build things of ambition, and farm, mine, and drill with determination."
One key element of the budget reply was the linking of migration to housing.
"First, mass migration is changing Australia for the worse. The number of people coming in far exceeds the number of houses built. Consequently, the great Australian dream of home ownership is vanishing for old and new Australians alike."
Under a coalition government, Mr Taylor says the Housing Minister would be required to present an annual report on the number of new homes completed in the last year.
That number would then be set as the limit for net overseas migration into Australia.
"Tonight, I announce a far-reaching and unprecedented housing policy. It's also an immigration policy that puts Australians first. A coalition will cap immigration numbers based on the number of homes constructed each year. Never again will a government be able to bring in more people than our housing can support."
On housing policy, other proposed changes include a slashing of the construction code, which Mr Taylor says will accelerate supply.
He also made promises to repeal Labor's changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing.
Through pledging to abolish Labor's Australia Future Fund, Help to Buy, Build to Rent and New Homes Bonus, Mr Taylor says the coalition can save billions.
Instead, he says he would establish a $5 billion housing infrastructure fund.
"We will invest $5 billion in supporting infrastructure like roads, water, power, and sewerage. With this support, we will unlock 400,000 new homes for Australians. As I said, we will cut red tape, which will take up to $70,000 off the cost of a new home."
Mr Taylor has promised that if elected, non-citizens, including permanent residents, will be barred from accessing 17 types of welfare.
Currently, the NDIS is available to permanent residents and Protected Special Category visa holders.
"Tonight, I announce that a Coalition government will reserve the NDIS and 17 different welfare programs, including JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, and the Family Tax Benefit, for Australian citizens only- and save taxpayers billions. My message is this: if you commit to Australia, Australia will commit to you."
Slamming the announcement, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi says migrants are not the cause of Australia's cost-of-living crisis.
"It is pathetic that the Liberals are willing to sink so low trying to out racist One Nation. News flash for Angus Taylor. Migrants are entitled to the same safety net as everyone else, migrants are feeling the same housing crisis, the same cost of living crisis, the same wage crisis as everyone else, caused by Labor and the Liberals embrace of Trump's Forever War and their unwillingness, their complete unwillingness, to tax the rich to properly fund social services and public housing."
The Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs, Julian Hill, told SBS, the idea lacks merit.
"This is not a serious policy proposition. It is a dog whistle to One Nation that is about dividing Australians rather than bringing us together. It is up to the Coalition to explain have they really thought through the potential consequences of this. For example, for Australians living in New Zealand or other countries; what happens when other countries say: okay, we'll start treating Australian citizens who have been living, working and paying taxes in our country and take away their family payments and benefits."
Angus Taylor says a coalition government would also limit temporary migration through toughened rules for international students, instead prioritising skilled visa categories.
Changes to migration also include imposing a binding requirement for visa holders to comply with the Australian Values statement, with visa cancellation for those deemed failing to do so.
He also vowed to introduce a "safe country list", with the intention of fast tracking refusals of protection claims from anyone coming from a country deemed safe.
"We'll enhance screening to stop radicals from entering our borders. We'll curtail frivolous protection claims by restoring temporary protection visas and establishing a list of safe countries deemed free from persecution. And we will process and deport 70,000 overstayers who have no legal right to stay. Those who criticise the law being enforced must explain why their sympathies lie with illegal overstayers instead of with migrants and Australians who abide by the law."
One Nation has criticised the policy, accusing the coalition of duplicating its policies.
The party's leader Pauline Hanson says after their success in the Farrer by-election, the coalition has had a wake up call.
"The difference is, that Angus Taylor has no vision for the future. And that's why he's picking up One Nation's policies. I'm the only one that's been speaking about vision for the future. I have been consistent for the past 30 years."
Mr Taylor also unveiled a wide-reaching new tax proposal, which he described as "the biggest tax reform in a generation", saying it will end "the inflation tax".
Under the proposed two-stage plan, income tax will be indexed to inflation.
"That will fully protect all income earners from inflation. This is generational tax reform.It's fair, it's simple, and it's honest."
As well as housing, migration and taxes, Angus Taylor also announced the coalition would lift the ban on nuclear and increase defence spending.
Taking aim at the Net Zero agenda, he says the coalition will rewrite environmental laws and speed up drilling.
"More Australian gas working hard for Australians. More Australian oil working hard for Australians. To dig and drill, the coalition will remove obstacles. As I said earlier, we will abolish Labor's hidden carbon taxes, like the safeguard mechanism, and we will rewrite Labor's anti-development environmental laws to speed up approvals. We're also going to unlock critical gas and oil projects. We will create, under law, national strategic priority projects."
Responding to the budget reply, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says what Angus Taylor has presented is not a serious economic plan.
"Ours is a plan to strengthen the economy. Angus Taylor's is a ploy to stave off One Nation. What we saw last night from Angus Taylor was not a budget reply. It was a bin fire. it wasn't a budget reply, it was a bin fire of higher deficits, more debt, more inflation and more division. Angus Taylor's recipe is for higher inflation bigger deficits more debt and more division in our society. Now he was asked last night, immediately after giving this speech, how much would his tax plan cost and he couldn't say. Now he won't tell you what he needs to cut to pay for his policies, because he can't tell you how much it costs."
