SUBJECT | Superannuation and Immigration | 6 March 2023
PETE STEFANOVIC: Joining us is the shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan. Dan, good to see you. Newspoll out this morning; shows two-thirds of Australia backing the Government's proposed super changes. Are you on the wrong side of this one?
TEHAN: Well, Pete, we always believe that taxes should be lower. And what wasn’t asked in that Newspoll was ‘should governments break election commitments?’ and I think if we had had had that question asked, you would have got an overwhelming ‘no’ from the Australian people, so, as always, it depends on what the question asked is. But we think what the Government is doing is true to form for a Labor government: they're raising taxes, and they're breaking election promises. It's on top of the $275 election commitment that they were going to reduce your bills by for electricity. They haven't been able to do that. The Prime Minister won't even mention $275. And we now wonder what's next. We've seen this break, this broken promise when it comes to super, broken promise when it comes to electricity prices, we know stage three tax cuts they're going to break that promise. And what else are they going to do? And I think that's the alarming thing about what happened last week.
STEFANOVIC: As for that stand-out point there on Jim Chalmers's plan to double the concessional tax rate, I mean, it is almost two-thirds of respondents who approve of what he is doing, so might you have to think twice about repealing it if you win the next election?
TEHAN: Well, we always believe that taxes should be lower, and we don't want to be a high-taxing government like this government is on the path to being. So, we've made a commitment that we will repeal these changes, and that's what we'll do. And one of the things we've learnt: there is a lot of cynicism around that governments say one thing before an election and then do another thing after an election. And I think one of the things that we are very committed to as a Coalition is making sure that A. we will take a very good plan to the Australian people at the next election and B we will make sure we honour those commitments.
STEFANOVIC: Well yeah, but might you have misjudged the community sentiment out there about taxing people who have, you know, the half a per cent who have above 3 million in super? Might you have misjudged how the community feels about that?
TEHAN: Well, what you've got to think about, Pete, is all those people who, after the last election who, had heard from Anthony Albanese that they weren't going to make changes with super, and they made investments based on those commitments given by Anthony Albanese. Now what they're facing now is the fact that those commitments and those investment decisions that they made were now based on a false promise. So, I think what we've got to do is make sure that we stand up for good government, for lower taxes, and for ensuring that governments honour their election commitments. And that's the fundamental point. Sometimes what is seen as popular is not necessarily good for the way this country is governed, and as a Coalition, we want to make sure A. we're going to be putting that plan to the Australian people at the next election, but B. that the Australian people will know that we will honour those commitments.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. A major review into the nation's immigration program is going to urge the government to remove a blanket requirement that employers put out job ads before recruiting skilled requirements, and so it's going to be flipped according to this pitch. Do you support this?
TEHAN: Well, reducing red tape when it comes to getting skilled migrants into this country is a positive thing, but, once again, what we're seeing from the government is more kite-flying. We haven't seen the report. We don't know whether the report is being presented to the government. Wouldn't it be great if the government came out and said, we're getting this report; when we get it, we're going to make it public, and then we're going to have a proper public discussion about what our immigration policy should look like going forward. Instead, what we've seen from the government is one part selectively leaked, and we don't know what's in the rest of it, so we can't have a proper discussion. And the thing about it is, the government doesn't have a plan when it comes to immigration, and we're seeing congestion growing in Melbourne and Sydney again. There is no plan. They outsourced their plan, and now they're selectively leaking it and won't even show it to the Australian people.
STEFANOVIC: But as for that point, that's in the papers, the Nine newspapers this morning about basically to increase migrants, you're removing the advertising at a local level to kind of boost, boost the numbers from overseas. That's that point. Do you support it, or is there another way to boost migration that you prefer?
TEHAN: So, what we've always said is that we're happy to reduce red tape when it comes to bringing skilled migrants into this country. Now that labour market testing requirement is a red tape which is being placed on employers, we're happy to look at that - absolutely. But what we want to see is the whole report so we can put it all in context and the Australian people can have a proper discussion on this. All we've seen is a selective leak of one component of it, and they haven't done what should be the right thing: release the full report to the Australian people and let's have a proper discussion about what our migration policy should look like rather than just kite flying that we're seeing from this Government the whole time.
STEFANOVIC: What about the skilled migration income? Do you think that should be lifted from its current level of 54 grand?
TEHAN: Well, obviously, it hasn't been adjusted for CPI for some time, but once again, you've got to look at that in the context of everything else. And all we've seen so far is a selective leak; we haven't seen the chapter which looks at that, and all these should be done in a holistic way. I mean, you should treat the Australian people with respect, not leak one little component from a report and not show them the context of the full report and what it looks like. We should be able to have a mature discussion about our migration policy. That's not what we're getting from this government.
STEFANOVIC: Abul Rizvi reckons that income, that migration income should be lifted up to 70 grand. Do you agree with him?
TEHAN: Well, once again, there'll be various people, there'll be various organisations, that will want to see it lifted and lifted by various amounts. The union movement had said it should be even higher, but once again…
STEFANOVIC: So you're not fixed on a figure?
TEHAN: We're not fixed on a figure. As I've said, it hasn't been adjusted for CPI for some time, but once again, we've got no context where everyone, including the Australian people, is being treated like mugs by this government because they won't release the full report, so we're going just to see little bits selectively leaked like the whole way, so no one has a sense of the whole context of it. It’s a crazy way to govern.
STEFANOVIC: Dan, we'll leave it there.
