TRANSCRIPT
THE HON DAN TEHAN MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR WANNON
INTERVIEW WITH ALI MOORE, ABC DRIVE MELBOURNE
23 May 2024
E&OE……………………………………………………
ALI MOORE: Dan Tehan is a Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. Dan Tehan Welcome to Drive.
DAN TEHAN: Pleasure to be with you, Ali.
MOORE: Can I just ask you a few really quick yes/no questions to try and sort of get some, I suppose just some basic things out there around the nuclear policy. A lot of discussion has been had on this station in particular round Anglesea being rule out, has it been ruled out?
TEHAN: Yes, it has and it was ruled out last year. And so I can tell all your listeners that there will not be a nuclear power plant at Anglesea. And can I say that those reports today, the journalist should have rung or they should have Googled to check their facts before they put that front page story out, because it was made quite clear last year, that there isn't the infrastructure there and also, the proposal for that site is for there to be an Eden Project there which would be a wonderful, wonderful tourism generator for Anglesea and for the Great Ocean Road.
MOORE: So Dan Tehan Anglesea, Anglesea is obviously in your electorate so you've, you've ruled out Anglesea, is there another site in your electorate that is on the list?
TEHAN: No.
MOORE: Okay.
TEHAN: So I can be very, very clear again. So our proposal and it's a very clear proposal and we will be putting it out in the next couple of weeks, or the next couple of months, is very clear, where there are existing coal fired power stations and where there’s the infrastructure in place, they’re the site that we are looking at, there will be community consultation as part of that, as part of any proposal and all the detail will be mapped out very clearly when we release our policy. But
MOORE: Then obviously, from what you've just said, Latrobe Valley would be absolutely on the list.
TEHAN: Well, what we will need to do and what everyone needs to do is wait and see for when we announce our policy, and we will announce our policy and we will announce it in very good time and it will have other aspects to it as well, because one of the things that we found out last week, which is deeply, deeply concerning for Victorians, and for the rest of Australia, is that we now have the potential over the next summer of having blackouts. And so we need to be also focusing on holding the government to account on our immediate future needs because it seems like Chris Bowen has made a complete mess of energy and if we're potentially facing blackouts this summer, as AEMO have suggested then we also need to be focusing on what is the government doing to ensure that we're going to be able to keep the lights on over the next summer?
MOORE: Sure, that's a different issue and not one that we're talking about at the moment. I do just want to try and nut down a few things about the nuclear policy. I take your point, you're going to announce the details you said in the next weeks or months. Is it weeks or months? When are we going to see it?
TEHAN: Well, obviously we're doing the work. We've been doing the work for quite some time. We want to make sure that when we release our policy, it's very clear. What we are going to do and obviously there's a lot of consultation which is taking place on that, there's a lot of information that needs to be gathered.
MOORE: Who are you consulting with? Because I just wonder whether everyone's on the same page and sorry, Brian, Ted O'Brien very specifically did not rule out Anglesea this morning on this radio station, you have categorically ruled it out. So is everyone in the party on the same page about where you can build and where you can't?
TEHAN: Absolutely they are. And if you go back and have a look at what was said last year, what was said earlier this year, Anglesea was absolutely ruled out categorically then, and I'm happy to rule it out categorically again now because there is a very, very good proposal for an Eden Project there.
MOORE: Sure. And you've made that point.
TEHAN: There so it doesn't meet the requirements.
MOORE: No, I'm just curious as to why Ted O'Brien didn't make those points earlier. But let's move on. Big or small, modular reactors which are you talking about?
TEHAN: Well, once again, Ali that will all be revealed when we announce our policy.
MOORE: You're not going to answer that question.
TEHAN: You'll just have to be a little bit patient and you also need to understand I’m not the shadow energy minister I’m the shadow Immigration Minister so I'm not going to come on to your program and announce a policy that obviously Ted O'Brien is doing all the work on and he, you know, appropriately was on Raf this morning, and outlining everything that he is in a position to tell your listeners and then, my understanding, also telling your listeners that in the coming weeks or months, he will be in a position to reveal more of the details.
MOORE: Sure I guess there's a lot of people who have got a lot of questions because you've been talking about this policy for a long time now so people are genuinely curious and they're not getting a lot of information to try and put any concerns they might have at rest. So I am just gonna try with a few other questions. Community consultation you say that is important, communities will be consulted. We heard earlier from our premier here in Victoria, who was adamant that there will be no nuclear. How will you do it? If the community does oppose, I'm not saying they will, we don't even know what areas you're going to target, but if the community does oppose and a state government is opposed would that mean you wouldn't be able to pursue it?
TEHAN: Well obviously all that will be outlined but as we release our policy, all those details will be in the policy, how that community consultation will take place. And I've got to say to you and your listeners, it's incredibly important that we get it right and that's why we're taking the time to do so. You remember in the lead up to the last election, Anthony Albanese promised all your listeners on more than 90 occasions that we would get a power bill reduction of $275. Now that has proven not to be the case. And most Victorians have seen an increase of $500 to $1,000 to their power bill. We want to make sure that what we put out is factual and will not lead to the type of thing that we saw before the last election where the Australian people were completely and utterly misled. And we want to get it right so…
MOORE: To that end, I know Ted O'Brien also made the point this morning that you are getting expert advice from overseas, he did not specify where. It very much depends where you look. You've got different experiences in Finland, the UK and the US versus China, South Korea and the UAE. So can I ask who you're talking to? Where you're focusing your attention?
TEHAN: Well, obviously multiple countries, because there are multiple examples and as Ted made the point this morning on radio most of the G20 countries either have nuclear or are looking at nuclear.
MOORE: So you're talking to all of them, are you?
TEHAN: Well, whether we're talking to all of them, or 15, I'm not 100% sure on that detail because once again, I’m the shadow minister immigration Ted is the shadow minister for energy, but can I tell you, he is doing a power of work to make sure that we get the details right, because we do not want to be doing like Anthony Albanese did in the last election promising a $275 reduction, when in fact what's happened to all Victorians is their power bills have gone through the roof.
MOORE: So let's look talk about your purview because you are the Shadow Minister for Immigration. In the budget reply Peter Dutton said he'd cut permanent migration 25%. The next day he broadened the commitment to cut net overseas migration by 38%. Yesterday, the Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor talked about permanent migration 25% also talked about net overseas migration, but he said another 25% cut, so what is the cut in your policy 25% or 38%?
TEHAN: Well, so the initial cut for net overseas migration and that's the amount of people who come into Australia and then leave Australia, and it's done over a 12 month period. The initial cut is to 160,000.
MOORE: From 260,000 which is a count of 38%. So Angus Taylor got it wrong yesterday when he said 25%?
TEHAN: No, because then we would go back to the long term average, which would see us having a reduction of 25%. So Angus was talking about what happens in the medium term. What the 160,000 figure is, is what happens in the first year.
MOORE: So, where were the cuts come from for them to the net overseas migration? I'm assuming it won't be skilled workers, so it's got to be family reunions or students?
TEHAN: There's a variety of areas that we will be looking at. So international students is one area that we'll be looking at. We've got record levels of international students at the moment and some of those international students will do multiple courses 3,4,5 in some instances, they'll do seven, eight or nine courses, so we will look at that. We will look at the amount of students who are staying on after they've finished their courses to work and many of those aren’t staying to work in areas where we have skill shortages. We have at the moment there are 80,000 people in Australia who applied for asylum here and have not been found to be owed asylum, and they are now still here in the country and about two thirds of them are on study or work visas. So we will ask them to return to their countries because they haven't been found to be owed asylum. So there are a suite of policy areas that we will be looking at to get the net overseas migration rate down.
MOORE: Dan Tehan a final question on the permanent migration. Part of your whole plan here is to try and reduce pressure on housing you say, if 60% of the people who are accepted for permanent migration are already here, you're not going to have the impact that you look like you’ll get on paper, are you?
TEHAN: Well, you can because, obviously, when we form government at the next election, which I'm very hopeful that we will. What we will be able to do was say for that year, the next year, the next financial year of those 140,000 we want to make sure that we're putting a focus on getting the electricians, the plumbers and the builders to come in where we have a need for them, so that we can make sure that we can build the houses that we need. And that that is something that you can do as Immigration Minister is put a priority on particular areas. So that's one way that we can immediately look to address it because one of the things that the Albanese Labor government have failed to do even though we've got a housing crisis, and a rental crisis, is to prioritize those skills and that's one of the areas which we think there needs to be an extra focus put.
MOORE: Dan Tehan thanks for talking to Drive.
ENDS
