SUBJECT | Anti-Immigration rally | 15 May 2023
PETE STEFANOVIC: I do want to ask you about these protests on the weekend. Anti-immigration rally in Melbourne, it got a little testy in some parts. What are your thoughts on that?
DAN TEHAN: It's abhorrent. There's no place for it in Australia. There's no place for Nazi salutes. And the sooner state governments act and ban this, the better. They've been talking about it, but it's time they actually acted and did something about it.
STEFANOVIC: Would you support that being enacted across the border and the country?
TEHAN: I think we need to. There is no place for it in our society. Everyone has condemned it, and everyone's condemned it every time it's taken place. And we thought we were going to get action, but it seems like state governments — I know in Victoria, Dan Andrews seems to have just sat on his hands, a lot of talking, no action, and I think it is time that he acted and acted very quickly because there's just no place for it.
STEFANOVIC: I mean, just one more on this one; I mean, how do you differentiate it between other salutes as well, and how do you police it? I mean, are there complexities around that?
TEHAN: Well, there are some complexities, but they were neo-Nazis. They were saluting. They had neo-Nazi salutes. I mean, it was all fairly clear and fairly apparent there. Obviously, for certain cultures, you have to be sensitive to that. But there was no doubt as to what was taking place on those steps on the weekend, and I just can't believe that Dan Andrews hasn't acted and acted quickly on this.
STEFANOVIC: All right, part of the angst is that there are too many migrants coming into the country. Do you agree with that point?
TEHAN: Well, what we've been saying is that the Labor Government has no plan, no plan whatsoever, for the $1.5 million, sorry, the 1.5 million increase in our population over the next five years. We're seeing infrastructure cuts in the budget, and congestion is already an issue. When it comes to emergency departments in hospitals, they’re under pressure. The Reserve Bank has said if this isn't managed properly, it's going to put upward pressure on interest rates, and we've got a housing and rental crisis in this country. No one knows where they're going to be housed. So there is an issue here due to the Labor Government's lack of planning, and in the budget, we saw nothing to address this. As a matter of fact, that 1.5 million number they tried to hide.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, but their forecasts when it comes to immigration, those forecasts aren’t too dissimilar to yours when you were in government pre-pandemic. So are they on the right track when it comes to numbers, then?
TEHAN: Well, no, they're not because if you look at their October budget — and they've been out spinning this since they quietly tried to release the numbers on a Friday afternoon — their October budget had the thought the numbers forecast at a lot lower level 235,000, and that jumped to 400,000. And once again, no planning. What did the Albanese Labor Government do in opposition for nine years? There is no planning around this. These numbers which have increased by 715,000 over this year and next year, 1.5 million over five years. No planning whatsoever, and they don't seem to have any answers as to how the housing shortage is going to be addressed; the rental crisis is going to be addressed. Their October budget the numbers in their October budget were a lot less than this, and they just seem to have lost control of the visa system.
STEFANOVIC: I mean, a lot of this comes down to the states, too, to open up more land; I know that Chris Minns is doing that. He's going to announce this in New South Wales today. I mean, there's part of a solution there, do you agree?
TEHAN: Well, there are Labor governments right across the mainland at the state and territory level and obviously federally. So they do have an opportunity if they all get together and take some action, but we’re seeing nothing along those lines. Chris Minns might be going to announce something today that's been rumoured, but we're not seeing a collective approach to address a housing shortage, which we think will number 200 to 250,000 houses. The budget papers had dwelling numbers in the country declining. So they don't seem to be doing anything to address it. As a matter of fact, the only reason the number was leaked out over two years, this year and next year, there'll be 715,000 people coming here is because it leaked out of a discussion that the Prime Minister was having with territory and state leaders. And we don't know what the outcome was of those discussions.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Just to final one here Day before you go. A secret report out this morning, the details of it anyway on the SMH, found immigration failures are enabling criminal organisations and unscrupulous people to exploit people and make money out of that. How surprising is that for you?
TEHAN: Well, Clare O'Neil needs to release this report. She gave a commitment that she would do so before the budget. Why is she sitting on it? What’s she got to hide? Why are the Labor Party hiding everything now when it comes to immigration? The Labor Party said they were going to fix this issue when they were in opposition; they had a summit on it. And now they're sitting on this report. They need to release it, and they need to show us a course of action to deal with it.
STEFANOVIC: Dan Tehan, we'll leave it there.
